Do The Patron Saint Medals Have A Link To The Underground?
Most of the patron saint medals depict a saintly individual who lived at the time of the Dark Ages. At that time, no one could have dreamed about the distribution of medals and literature by the posting of material on the Internet. In fact, until some time in the 15th Century, all literature had to be written by hand. Until that time, no written material could be produced on a printer. Now anyone with a personal computer can submit his or her idea and have it posted in a blog. That material can then be shared with Internet viewers all over the world.
Among the many patron saint medals, those that bear a picture of St. Benedict make a perfect gift for a speleologist. What is a speleologist? It is a scientist who studies the underground world of the cave.
The cave, like a wetland, a desert or a rainforest, represents a unique ecological niche. A speleologist makes a point of learning all about the flora and fauna in as many caves as possible. The cave environment and all the living things in that environment are viewed as parts of a living “community.” That community is called a “karstland.”
The word “karst” is an alternative term for the underground structure known as a cave. The speleologist journeys into many different karsts. The speleologist studies both the land within the karst and the land above the karst. The entire area inside and outside of a cave is called a “karstland.”
Scientists who might devote hours to the study of any particular karstland go repeatedly into a section of the world that seems rather cut-off from the other animal and plant habitats. In that sense, the biologist who studies a karst is a lot like a monk. Interestingly, both monks and speleologists are the perfect recipients for the gift of a patron saint medal.
Each of the patron saint medals has been associated with those people who work in a particular profession. Medals that bear a picture of St. Bernard are supposed to bring good luck to mountain climbers. Medals with a picture of St. Benedict are said to give speleologists and monks a token of good fortune.
A speleologist who studied caves in Africa might want to have a number of medals with the picture of St. Benedict. That would, supposedly, offer the speleologist an extra bit of good fortune. A speleologist would certainly need good fortune, if he or she were to crawl into a number of African caves.
Scientists have found that some of the most feared viruses in Africa came from a cave. Scientists have determined that infected bats can fly out of a cave and thus spread a virus. The bat acts as what is called a “vector.”
Each virus needs to have some type of “vector.” In that way, the virus has a way to journey from one host to the next. Not every viral transmission takes place from one human to another human. Sometimes a virus is transmitted from an animal into a human.
As scientists learn more about the transmission of viruses, they might find that other cave-dwelling organisms also serve as a “vector.” Those who come in contact with that vector may well feel compelled to pray for help from a caring saint, possibly from Saint Benedict.