What's in a name, Catholic edition
 

File this under "Catholic humor." This might turn into a Sycamore and Griff thread, but I'm sure many non-Catholics will be familiar with what I'm talking about, and will hopefully join in.

Many Catholic churches/parishes and schools are named after the saints of the church, the Virgin Mary, or "events" that are important to the religion. Some of these are standard fare, like St. Martha's Church in NE Philadelphia. (No clue who St. Martha was, but she was obviously important enough to be canonized.) Others are more unusual, or even funny. So, the whole concept of this thread is...post the more unusual ones.

My own submissions (and the places where I've seen them):

--Resurrection of Our Lord (my grade school alma mater in St. Louis)
--Transfiguration (St. Louis)
--North American Martyrs (St. Louis)
--Our Lady of Ransom (Phila)
--Mary, Queen of the Universe (St. Louis)
--Queen of All Saints (St. Louis)
--Holy Rosary (St. Louis)
--St. James the Greater (as opposed to St. James the Lesser...St. Louis)
--Annunziata (St. Louis)
--St. Dismas (one of the thieves crucified with Jesus...St. Louis)
--Cure of Ars (St. Louis)
--Our Lady of the Snows Shrine (Belleville, IL)
--Our Lady of the River Shrine (Portage des Sioux, MO)

--Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility (Lake Wobegon, MN)

i wish i lived in lake wobegon. it sounds nice there. :)

~james

I used to catch the drunks mass, Sunday evenings at Our Lady of the Perpetual Empty Pockets in Binghamton. Does that count?

Seriously though, the Irish parishes out here just are not that creative. Pat, Tom, and Frank are the three yoked parishes here. We do have a St. Boneventure down the road and another I'm trying to remember that has a common Spanish name but the locals pronounce it in a really amusing way.... nope its gone.

Isn't Lake Woebegon Lutheran?

Precious Blood -- Toronto, Canada

always sounded like a cult to me, when I was a kid.

St. Bernard -- North Kingstown, R.I. if you like dogs.

St. Augustine of Hippo -- Cornwall, UK -- I thougth they threw them to the lions.

Immaculate Conception -- for people who will believe anything. ;)

I'm so going to hell for that.

--Sacred Heart (Valley Park, MO)
--Our Lady of Consolation (Phila)
--Immaculate Heart of Mary (St. Louis)
--Incarnate Word Hospital (St. Louis...though the name of it changed about 4 years ago)

I think my mom was baptized at Immaculate Conception in St. Louis.

Semi-OT, but there is a suburb of St. Louis near the Airport called St. Ann. Now that's nothing major there, but a majority of the streets are named after saints. I used to know a girl that lived on St. Joachim Street.

Florissant, one of the larger suburbs of St. Louis, has saint street names in the older part of the city. What's more, the side streets are named French-style (Rue St. Denis, Rue St. Jean).

(And that's pronounced JEEN, not ZHAWN. Much like St. Francois County near St. Louis is pronounced FRAN-ses, not fran-SWA.)

Yes, mostly. But there are also sizeable minorities of Consecrated Brethren and Bavarian Catholics.

More funny names:

--St. Rocco (Union City, NJ)
--Our Lady of Czestochowa (Jersey City, NJ...note, all their masses are in English)

After my wife graduated from college, she taught music for a year at "Our Lady Queen of Peace." Somebody apparently forgot to tell the staff at this school that Catholic schools are supposed to be bastions of discipline.. on my wife's first day, the principal told her, "The 8th grade is horrible.. nobody can deal with them... if they give you too much trouble, just call me & I'll take over."

Epiphany of Our Lord (Blue Bell. PA)

This also started me thinking about nun names (They Don't Make Nun Names Like That No More) ... Real ones, not the made up joke kind ...

Principal of one of the elementaryt schools I attended (St. Thomas More, Allentown, PA) was Sister James Immaculate.

Every time we drive to Classic Pistol we go by "St. John Bosco" school. I assume he must be the patron saint of chocolate milk...and presumably Sr. Mary Ovaltine teaches there.

I was always fond of Carlin's "Our Lady of Perpetual Motion".

I'm waiting to see "Holy Mother of Christ". Still waiting.

--St. Mary of Victories (St. Louis...what did she win?)
--St. Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist (St. Louis...nice long name there)
--Holy Innocents (St. Louis)
--Our Lady Help of Christians (Weingarten, MO)
--Holy Martyrs of Japan (Japan, MO)
--Holy Redeemer (Webster Groves, MO)
--Christ, Prince of Peace (Manchester, MO)
--Seven Holy Founders (St. Louis)
--Our Lady of the Pillar (St. Louis)
--St. Andrew Kim (University City, MO...a Korean Catholic church...never heard of one before now)