November 26 -- Feast of Saint Conrad of Constance

ArachnoChug!

The Bishop of Constance

Conrad of Constance was a very good priest and then a very good bishop.  Having inherited a lot of land (with its regular revenue) from his dad, Count Heinrich von Altdorf (nope, not made up), he built three new churches.  He also oversaw the renovation of many more.  While other priests were angling to be bishops, and bishops were angling to be cardinals, Conrad was busy feeding the hungry.  He probably would have made saint without the ArachnoChug. 

And yet, once that moment had happened, how could he possibly be remembered for anything else?  Conrad was at the altar, consecrating the wine, when a spider dropped into the chalice.  He believed that all spiders were poisonous.  He also believed that the wine had become the sacred blood of Jesus, and therefore had to be consumed. 

Down the hatch, nasty little eight-legged creeper and all. 

Faith can be tested in big ways, like Blessed Hugh Taylor and Blessed Marmaduke Bowes, who are also celebrated on November 26.  Hugh was a Roman Catholic priest in Elizabethan England, the first to be brought to trial and executed.  He was hanged, drawn, and quartered.  Marmaduke was an English  yeoman who opened his home to shelter the priests during Elizabethan England.  He was ratted out by his children's tutor, an apostate Catholic.  Summoned to the assizes, Bowes was indicted, convicted, and executed all on the same day -- still in his riding boots and spurs.  Such a public test of faith, with the stakes so high and everyone watching, might fortify a man's resolve. 

But the ArachnoChug was another matter entirely.  The chalice was opaque -- who would ever know if you didn't finish it?  In that moment, when it is just you and God and a poisoned cup -- that is the test of Faith.