~January 25.~
Holiday at the Public Office; except the Excise, Stamps, and Customs.
CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. _Sts. Juventinus and Maximinus_, A. D. 363.
_St. Projectus_, A. D. 674. _St. Poppo_, A. D. 1048. _St. Apollo_, A.
D. 393. _St. Publius_, A. D. 369.
_The Conversion of St. Paul._
This is a festival in the calendar of the church of England, as well as
in that of the Romish church.
~St. Paul’s Day.~
On this day prognostications of the months were drawn for the whole
year. If fair and clear, there was to be plenty; if cloudy or misty,
much cattle would die; if rain or snow fell then it presaged a dearth;
and if windy, there would be wars:
If Saint Paul’s Day be fair and clear.
It does betide a happy year;
But if it chance to snow or rain,
Then will be dear all kinds of grain;
If clouds or mists do dark the skie,
Great store of birds and beasts shall die;
And if the winds do fly aloft,
Then wars shall vex the kingdome oft.
_Willsford’s Nature’s Secrets._
These prognostications are Englished from an ancient calendar: they have
likewise been translated by Gay, who enjoins,
Let no such vulgar tales debase thy mind,
Nor Paul nor Swithin rule the clouds and wind.
The latter lines are allusive to the popular superstitions, regarding
these days, which were before remarked by bishop Hall, who observes of a
person under such influences, that “St. Paule’s day, and St. Swithine’s,
with the twelve, are his oracles, which he dares believe against the
almanacke.” It will be recollected that “the twelve” are twelve days of
Christmastide, mentioned on a preceding day as believed by the ignorant
to denote the weather throughout the year.
Concerning this day, Bourne says. “How it came to have this particular
knack of foretelling the good or ill fortune of the following year is no
easy matter to find out. The monks, who were undoubtedly the first who
made this wonderful observation, have taken care it should be handed
down to posterity; but why, or for what reason, they have taken care to
conceal. St. Paul did indeed labour more abundantly than all the
apostles; but never that I heard in the science of astrology: and why
this day should therefore be a standing almanac to the world, rather
than the day of any other saint, will be pretty hard to find out.” In
an ancient Romish calendar, much used by Brand, the vigil of St. Paul is
called “Dies Ægyptiacus;” and he confesses his ignorance of any reason
for calling it “an Egyptian-day.” Mr. Fosbroke explains, from a passage
in Ducange, that it was so called because there were two unlucky days in
every month, and St. Paul’s vigil was one of the two in January.
Dr. Forster notes, that the festival of the conversion of St. Paul has
always been reckoned ominous of the future weather of the year, in
various countries remote from each other.
According to Schenkius, cited by Brand, it was a custom in many parts of
Germany, to drag the images of St. Paul and St. Urban to the river, if
there was foul weather on their festival.