Jaroslav Hašek, 'The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War,' Part 2B

Jaroslav Hašek, The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War / Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války / Los destinos del buen soldado Švejk durante la guerra mundial / Les Aventures du brave soldat Švejk pendant la Grande Guerre / aka The Good Soldier Švejk / (1921-1923).

"During the whole time since Senior Lieutenant Lukáš first became commander of the Eleventh march-gang, he found himself in a state called syncretism, that is in a philosophy of striving to equalize the conceptual contradictions with the help of compromising all the way to a commingling of views."

~~ Jaroslav Hašek, The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two. The Samizdat edition of the new English rendition, translated by Zdeněk "Zenny" Sadloň, AuthorHouse, 2009, page 196. 

I understand where Oberleutnant Lukáš is coming from. Living in the world, I find myself occasionally (often) having to "equalize . . . conceptual contradictions with the help of compromising all the way to a commingling of views." Another word for this is diplomacy. And, melding. Or grokking. 

An example of cultural syncretism follows. Hard to believe, but I first wrote this in the year 2006 -- twelve years ago!

Saint Lucy / Santa Lucia /Sankta Lucia presents an excellent example of syncretism. A dual saint to both Catholics and Nordic Protestants and also to some Eastern Orthodox communities, St. Lucia (traditional dates 283-304 A.D.) was a Greek Sicilian martyr killed during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian. Some versions of her death have her stabbed through the throat; others have her eyes gouged out (she is, among other things, Patron Saint of the Blind).

So how on Earth did Santa Lucia become a Swedish / Nordic saint?

In Viking days, the Norsemen traveled, raided, and created outposts all over Europe and, to the West, in Greenland and even in what is now Canada. They sailed into the Mediterranean and landed in Sicily, among other places, where they mingled with natives and absorbed local traditions, including that of Santa Lucia, who in Swedish became Sankta Lucia. The Swedes adopted Catholicism along the way, and remained Catholic until the Protestant Reformation and the infiltration of Lutheran beliefs. Sankta Lucia's feast day survived, rather miraculously, this second conversion.

Under the Julian calendar, Lucy's feast day was commemorated during the winter solstice (December 21-22), syncretized wherever celebrated with non-Christian belief systems. As with Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, "everybody be happy." Much later, during the Gregorian calendar reforms, St. Lucy's feast day was moved from the solstice to December 13th, where it has remained on the calendar for the past three to four hundred years.

In addition to being Patron Saint of the Blind, Saint Lucy of Sicily is also a patron saint for writers, salesmen, and stained glass workers.

Today's Rune: Initiation.