Namesake

Today is my sister Jane's name day. It is the feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, who was a mother of six, widowed, and the went on to care for the sick and bereaved, and founded the Visitation nuns. My mother liked the name Jane Frances. How many of us are named after saints?

I was named after a business friend whom my father admired for his work and manner. Most people spell my name differently than it was given to me. Terrence comes out as Terance, Terrance, Terence. One of my other sisters spells it "wrong" to this day. It used to bother me that I was not named after a specific saint. I did get "Patrick" for baptism. Now I think that I have a person admired by my dad, who lived an exemplary life in his daily work.

The Vatican II council says that we are not supposed to separate our faith from our daily work. Don't be one of those people who go to church, say they believe, and go about their daily life with a lot of bad, uncaring behavior. Maybe Terrence was a saint who just never got officially recognized in the church. Can I become that? Can you? Who are you named after? I suppose if you were named after a "thing" it would make it more imaginative to figure out the connection between your name and a lifestyle.