From the "Surprising, little-known but oddly cool things about Catholicism.

The Curt Jester has a post about, inter alia, a Catholic Sportsmen's Organization, whose patron saint is the "gunner saint", St. Gabriel Possenti. St. Gabrial Possenti earned his sobriquet with by saving in Italian village from brigands in 1860 through a demonstration of his prowess with a handgun by nailing a lizard with a single shot.

Here is the website for the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, which has links to topics like "Self Defense and the Bible. And this is the story of St. Possenti and the unfortunate lizard, both of whom are immortalized on St. Possenti's religious medallion.

This strikes me as one surprising saint story.

On the general subject of poor cultural knowledge, I was at my parish's ministry for divorced and separated people last Wednesday and I shared that it was the feast day of St. Thomas More. I had mentioned the fact with the same confidence of recognition that I would have had if I had shared that it was Tom Cruise's birthday. Not one of the 6 other generally middle-aged Catholics were even acquainted with the name. (Well, one did recall More after I mentioned "A Man for All Seasons.")

I would have sworn that every one would have known of St. Thomas More, but clearly we are becoming a people - all of us moderns, I fear - so obsessed with the immediate and contemptuous of the past that we are becoming culturally ignorant of our own history.