Saint Christopher

Invocation

“Saint Christopher, bearer of the Christ Child, carry me through this journey. May my vehicle be a sure vessel.”

Life and Devotion

The life of Saint Christopher belongs more to hagiographic legend than to documented history — and it is precisely this legendary dimension that gives him a universal symbolic power. According to Christian tradition, transmitted notably through Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend of the thirteenth century, Christopher was a man of gigantic stature, from the land of Canaan, who sought to serve the mightiest of kings. Having served an earthly king and then the devil himself, he encountered a hermit who taught him that the greatest master was Christ. Not knowing how to pray, he settled by the bank of a dangerous river and ferried travelers across on his broad shoulders. One night, a small child asked to cross: partway through, the child's weight became unbearable, as if Christopher were carrying the whole world. The child revealed himself to be Jesus Christ, and the weight felt was that of the world he bore. His very name, Christophoros in Greek, means 'bearer of Christ.' Martyred under Decius or Diocletian in the third century depending on the source, he was long counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers of medieval Germanic tradition. In 1969, the Roman calendar removed him from the universal calendar while retaining his commemoration in local liturgical law.

The bond between Christopher and travelers is written into the heart of his legend: he is above all the one who carries others through danger. The river he helped wayfarers cross is a metaphor for every perilous passage — the winding road, the stormy sea, the nighttime drive. The act of carrying someone through a mortal obstacle became the symbol of all protection in transit. In twentieth-century automobile culture, his medal naturally established itself as the driver's talisman: hung from the rearview mirror, it symbolizes a benevolent presence on every journey. Generations of parents have slipped a Christopher medal into the bag of a child leaving to study abroad or heading off to military service.

The invocation of Saint Christopher is made above all at the moment of departure: a brief prayer, the blessed medal touched once, the journey entrusted. His feast day on July 25 is the occasion in many parishes for blessings of cars, boats, and all manner of vehicles — a tradition very much alive in fishing harbors and rural communities. The classic prayer is concise, as befits a saint of action and movement: one asks him to carry the traveler through the journey as he once carried Christ through the waters, and to bring them safely home. The medal in the vehicle serves as a permanent novena — the silent presence of a benevolent giant.