Catherine, Called Birdy

by Karen Cushman

I cannot be a monk nor a crusader nor a tumbler. I must stay here and hem sheets until I die. My humors are greatly out of balance. I prescribe for myself wormwood in spiced wine and some of the custard left from supper. And I will let all of the dogs sleep in my bed.

18TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, Feast of Saint Mawes, who can cure headaches, worms, and snakebite

28TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, Feast of Saint Juthwara, who wore cheeses on her chest and was beheaded by her stepbrother

Ladies, it seems, seldom have strong feelings and, if they do, never never let them show. God’s thumbs! I always have strong feelings and they are quite painful until I let them out, like a cow who needs to give milk and bellows with the pain in her teats. So I am in disgrace in my chamber.

I think love is like mildew, growing gray and musty on things, spoiling them, and smelling bad.

will braid my hair with silken threads and wear a gown of saffron silk with a red cloak and purple leather shoes embroidered with gold and silver threads. My belt will have bells on it and thin pieces of gold beaten into the shape of leaves and flowers. My betrothed, in a cloak of scarlet silk, will meet me at my father’s house. His horses will have flowers and ribbons woven into their manes and their saddles draped with silk.

Feast of Saint Chad, whose dust taken in water cures men and cows of their infirmities and restores them to health

7TH DAY OF MARCH, Feast of Saint Perpetua, who turned into a man and trod on the Devil’s head

21ST DAY OF MAY, Feast of Saint Collen, a Welshman who fought a duel with a Saracen before the pope, went home to Wales, and delivered the people in the Vale of Llangollen from a lady giant by slaying her

3RD DAY OF JUNE, Whitsunday and the Feast of Saint Kevin, who lived on salmon brought to him by an otter and died at one hundred twenty

23RD DAY OF JUNE, Midsummer Eve and Feast of Saint Ethelreda, who died of a tumor on her neck, divine punishment for her vanity in wearing necklaces in her younger days

4TH DAY OF AUGUST, Feast of Saint Sithney. God asked him to be the patron saint of girls but Sithney said he’d rather be the patron of mad dogs, so he is. I like to think of him as my father’s special saint