Book of Days

It rained here last Friday, the sort of rain we get when a cold front comes through, a wide swath of it coming down diagonally across the peninsula. We won’t be seeing much of this for a while, not while summer is here. Friday’s may very well have been the last cold front we’ll see until next fall. In its wake came perfect weather: cool and dry. It lasted for days and days and still it is pretty pleasant out, to be honest. I like to think it was our brush with Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints. Maybe they came a bit early this year.

May 11, today, is the feast day of St. Mamertus. Tomorrow, the 12th, St. Pancras. On the 13th we remember St. Servatius and on the 14th, St. Boniface, and then on the 15th, Cold Sophie herself: St. Sophia. In old German weather lore, this group of saints, led by Sophia, are known as the Ice Saints, die Eisheiligen. Kalte Sophie or Cold Sophie is their ringleader, and she and the Ice Saints are thought to bring one last blast of cold air before summer finally settles in. And so today they begin to make their entrance on the scene. If you live in a place that is more temperate than ours, you may experience colder temperatures than you have been, and if you do, you can give a nod to Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints. Cold Sophie may have come early to Lake Worth this year, but for all of you in cooler climes, take care. Avoid planting cold-sensitive crops until after the days of Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints have run their course. A good story, and good common sense, too.

Image: A fresco from St. Sophia Church in Ohrid, Macedonia. Circa 11th century. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

Most all of these Convivio Book of Days chapters come to you from a small wooden cottage built in 1949 in Lake Worth, Florida. Lake Worth has had numerous slogans over the years, but one of the earliest was this one: Where summer spends winter. This is a town that knows summer. Even our coldest months of the year are filled with days that will remind any northerner of a beautiful summer’s day back home. It’s a tough life, I know. But we pay for it dearly each summer with heat and humidity like you wouldn’t believe. It’s not unbearable, but it does take some getting used to. A Florida summer is not for the faint of heart.

There was one summer many years ago that found a car with Alaska plates parked on North Palmway, one of the neighborhood roads. I drove by that car every day after work, and each time I did, I thought of the person who drove it here from Alaska, and I wondered how they were faring. Was it the poor soul’s first summer here? Were they drinking enough water? Were they languishing in bed each morning as the thick, almost liquid summer air poured into their lungs? Did they dream of moose and white pine?

Yesterday, as I began writing this, it was a hot one. It is mid May and summer is gaining its foothold here in this strange green land. And yet we come now to a few days devoted to a group of saints who are known as the Ice Saints, or in German (for this is a legend of Northern Europe) as die Eisheiligen. They are Saints Mamertus, Pancras, Servatius, Boniface, and Sophia, their ringleader. Their feast days begin about now: on May 11th for St. Mamertus, and they continue on this week, each saint to his or her day, through to St. Sophia on the 15th. She is known in Germany as Kalte Sophie: Cold Sophie. In Central Europe, particularly Slovenia, you might hear her called Poscana Zofka… Pissing Sophie, for there, she is associated with rain. The days of Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints are traditional weather markers, and it is a fool indeed who would plant crops before Cold Sophie had time enough to wend her way through the land. She represents winter’s last hurrah, and even if it’s been warm and summery, tradition warns of a blast of cold air from the North at this time of May.

And there seems to be some truth to this. It may have been a hot one here in Lake Worth yesterday (and probably will be today), but we have just come out of a spell of amazingly beautiful weather. It rained cats and dogs last Thursday, and on Friday, we awoke to an azure sky, not a cloud to be seen, with temperatures in that absolutely perfect range where the sun is warm but the air is cool and dry. It was downright chilly at night. This lasted for days, up until just the day before yesterday. It was, I’d say, an early brush with Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints. It’s not very likely they’ll be back, not until our Lake Worth summer has played out. But it was lovely while it lasted.

Image: “Very Cold at Paris,” a hand-colored etching by an anonymous engraver, published by R. Ackermann, March 1, 1806. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

If you’ve been following the Convivio Book of Days for any length of time, you know how much we love a good old obscure holiday. Well, it’s mid May and here comes another one: it’s the feast day of St. Sophia. Chances are good you’ve never heard of her. She was an early Christian martyr in Rome, other than dying for her faith, not much else, after all these centuries, is known about her life. Her feast day, however, is known to bring the last of winter’s cold breath to Northern Europe, and the day there, especially in Germany, is known as Kalte Sophie, Cold Sophie.

Sophia is one of the Ice Saints, die eisheiligen. They arrive in May, a troupe of them, one for each day beginning on the 11th: Saints Mamertus, Pancras, Servatius, Boniface, and finally Sophia, today on the 15th. She is the last of them, but she is the grand dame of them, and no wise farmer or gardener will plant cold sensitive crops until after Cold Sophie has passed.

So if you should wake on this mid May morning and find a chill in the air, now you know why. It is the work of Cold Sophie and her Ice Saints, offering winter’s last hurrah before the gentler months of summer firmly stand their ground. Until of course the planet’s constant rearrange allows their return once again. The only thing that stays the same is change.

Image: Windy Night by Reene. Scratchboard, 2005, [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.