SAINT EXPEDITE
Saint Expedite is the patron of those who hope for rapid solutions to problems, who wish to avoid or put an end to delays, and who want general financial success. His aid is also sought by those who wish to overcome procrastination as a personal bad habit, as well as by shop-keepers and sailors. His feast day is April 19.
Expedite is typically depicted as a young Roman centurion holding aloft a cross marked HODIE ("today" in Latin) and squashing a crow beneath his right foot. Out of the dying crow's mouth issues a word-ribbon, CRAS ("tomorrow" in Latin). Thus Expedite destroys a vague tomorrow in favour of a definite today.
There is a cute pun in what the crow says: CRAS CRAS CRAS is how Romans imitated the sound of crows (in English, this is CAW CAW CAW), thus crows and ravens are said to always be croaking about "tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow." Expedite, by stomping the crow, destroys the vice of procrastination (pro-CRAS-tination means putting things off until tomorrow).
When Latin was a common language, Saint Expedite saw service as a mnemonic aid in adjuring people to convert to Christianity. Priests indicated the image of the saint with his cross and crow to warn pagans not to put off until tomorrow the religious conversion that could be accomplished today, because they might not live until tomorrow and thus would die unshriven.
(As a side note, the fact that Latin crows and ravens say CRAS explains why Edgar Allan Poe had a raven -- rather than some other bird -- declaim "nevermore" in the poem "The Raven." The narrator asks when he will see his Lost Lenore again. If the raven spoke good Latin, as might be expected, he would croak CRAS -- "tomorrow" -- but he disappoints the grieving lover by croaking "nevermore" instead!)
Saint Expedite is well-known in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Latin America. In the United States, he is greatly revered in New Orleans, whence he came by way of Spain. (Most people think of New Orleans as French, but for forty years, from 1763 to 1803, it was a Spanish colony.)
There is an old, humourously apocryphal tale about the arrival of Saint Expedite in New Orleans: The story goes that in outfitting the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the priests sent off to Spain for a large and beautiful statue of the Virgin, and many months later, by ship, they received TWO crates instead of one. They opened the first and it contained the statue of Mary, which they had commissioned, and then they turned to the unexpected second crate, which only bore the legend EXPEDITE on the outside. This they opened, to find the statue of a Roman centurion. In their simple ignorance, they mistook the shipping instructions -- EXPEDITE, meaning, "expedite this shipment" -- to be the name of a saint.
The story is both funny and miraculous, but it is not a true account of the origin of the image of Saint Expedite, for he can be found in other places than New Orleans, and there is no reason to think that the sculptors in Spain would have created such a figure unless asked to do so. Interestingly, as with the CRAS pun, once again, Saint Expedite is associated with word-play.
Candles burned for Saint Expedite are usually red. They may be dressed with Red Fast Luck Oil or Saint Expedite Oil. If you are working with a statue or holy card of the saint and a plain offertory candle, it is customary to place a glass of water next to the image of the saint, forming a triangle with the glass at the front left of the triangle, the candle at the middle rear, and the statue at the front right. If a glass-encased votive candle with the saint's image on it is used instead of a free-standing candle and a statue, the water glass is placed to the left of the candle and the two objects are simply side-by-side.
A good day to burn candles for Saint Expedite is Wednesday, the day of Mercury, the messenger god of the Romans. In fact, Expedite is not only syncretized with that ancient deity, he is symbolized by the metal quicksilver (liquid elemental Mercury), and is also associated with the African and Afro-Caribbean spiritual entities Elegua, Legba, Baron Samedi, Bonsu, and so forth, those being the messengers and tricksters in the Lukumi / Santeria, Voodoo / Vodoun, and Obeah pantheons.
When Saint Expedite grants your request, his statue, holy card, or empty candle-glass is given a gift of flowers or flowers and a slice of pound cake. (One man from New Orleans told me that it should be Sarah Lee brand pound cake, although i think home-made would do as well.) It is often said that you must never seek the aid of Expedite unless you are prepared to give this tribute after the work is done, or he will take back all the good he did for you, and more besides. This accords with Expedite's position as an analogue to the various African messenger-trickster spirits, and is not typical of mainstream Catholic teachings about the intercession of saints. Some people also recommend publishing his name in the paper if he comes through for you, a tradition that is more often associated with Saint Jude.
The constellation of ritual beliefs associated with supplications to Saint Expedite among African-American Catholics was succinctly summed up by an anonymous New Orleans informant whose instructions for working with the saint were recorded by the folklorist Harry M. Hyatt in the late 1930s:
The following documentation on Saint Expedite in New Orleans comes from "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork," a 5-volume, 4766-page collection of folkloric material gathered by Harry Middleton Hyatt, primarily between 1935 and 1939.
at this web site, please take a moment to open and read the supplementary page called
"Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork" by Harry Middleton Hyatt.
Well, St. Espedee works very quickly. His light is a red light on a Wednesday. He's fo' close scrapes -- he's fo' quick money. But then there is a call behin' him. Somebody must go behin' St. Espedee. He takes unless yo' give him flowers. Yo' must give him flowers because if not, then someone out of the house will pass on.
[New Orleans, LA. Informant# not noted; E6:7-E19:3 = 2839-2852] {Vol. 2, Pg. 962}
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