Photo by Dale Kessler

[madbaker]

Saint Rawberries was a mystic and hermit who believed that one's rank in heaven was determined by one's rank in life. However, he interpreted this as actual body rank, and thus subsisted entirely on garlic for seven years.
He originally lived in a small village near Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. After the first year the entire village relocated five miles upwind, leaving him as a solitary hermit.
The feast day of Saint Rawberries often coincides with the Gilroy Garlic festival.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

...and it has long been the tradition to leave oranges at the foot of his roadside altars, as a sign of humility. These of course were the days when the wealthy carried an orange as a pomander to sniff against the stink of the streets, so this offering symbolises acceptance, submission, a tearing-down of veils.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Well done, sir.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

St. Rawberries was martyred by the Cloroxians, a heretical sect that took "cleanliness is next to godliness" more literally than the Church was comfortable with.

[cathyn.livejournal.com]

Patron Saint of afflictions of the scrotum?