St. Tropez
09 Mar 2020Today’s prompt: “The weekend in St. Tropez”
It’s not easy being a Christian in 65 AD.
Nobody really knows what happened to you, but the legends say you were martyred during Nero’s reign. Maybe you were a knight who was a bodyguard for Nero and then converted to Christianity. That might also be a bunch of romanticized bunk. Anyhow, the legends say that Nero asked you to renounce your faith. When you refused, Nero had you decapitated. Other legends say you fled to Pisa and were recognized and executed by the prefect there. There really aren’t any reliable records.
At some point, though, you throw the lack of an evidentiary record out the window and embrace the fuck out of the legends. That point is when I read that your head was thrown into the river Arno and your body was put in a rotten boat with a rooster and a dog in the hopes that they would eat you as the boat floated to Liguria. Supposedly, a holy woman had a dream that your body would arrive in her city, and indeed, the boat landed there, with your body complete un-snacked-upon by the dog and the rooster. Is this early Christian nonsense? Probably. But it’s great early Christian nonsense.
After the boat landed, the rooster flew away to a nearby village, which was named after it – Cogolin. The dog wandered off toward another village, which was also named in its honor – Grimaud. And the city where you landed? They named that after you – Saint-Tropez.
Since then, many a weekend in Saint-Tropez has been celebrated by sailors, of whom you are the patron saint. Your feast day, April 29, has been celebrated since 1284 on weekday and weekend alike – not to mention the other festivals you’re honored in. But it’ll never be anything like that first weekend in St. Tropez – the weekend after your body was discovered, when people first congregated around their newly found martyr.