A saint tailor made for the Vilalobos crisis
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some creditors of Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho are seeking the most powerful possible help.
Forget the politicians. Forget the investigators. Forget the lawyers. Forget the organized groups.
As a class, the creditors are religious. And many have been praying for a satisfactory end to the financial crisis that has impoverished them.
They urge that twin investigations rapidly come to an end and that their investment money be quickly unfrozen by Costa Rican officials.
What better individual to intercede on their behalf than St. Expedite. Yes, Expedite, like in "Hurry up and deliver this."
There really is such a Roman Catholic saint, and he is considered the patron of prompt solutions and financial success. The saint also likes publicity, and reporters learned of the devotion when a reader contacted the newspaper to place a classified encouraging the saint.
A little research showed that St. Expedite or Expedito or Expeditus ranks right up there with St. Jude in having classifieds placed for him in New Orleans newspapers by grateful supplicants.
.A wave of veneration swept through Brazil recently where petitioners printed small prayer cards bearing the saint’s image. Each recipient of such a card was supposed to have 1,000 more made and distributed. Some say the commercial printers were behind the trend.
The reader, who said he was not even Catholic, said he has been conducting a novena or nine days of prayer to the saint. The Internet is full of appropriate prayers and a surprising quantity of Web pages about the saint. The best seems to be maintained by Franciscan Brothers of the Sacred Heart at St. Francis Friary in Fargo, North Dakota, in the United States. The Franciscans also report they have a bone relic of the saint in their Regina Caeli Chapel. That Web page is here.
Another good summary of the life of the saint can be found here.
Expedite is supposed to have been a Roman soldier martyred by Pagan Romans for his Christianity. He is depicted stepping on a crow that represents procrastination and holding a cross emblazoned with the Latin word for "today."
Several prayers to the saint seem to summarize tightly the problem of the frustrated Villalobos creditors who were blindsided when police officials raised the businessman’s Mall San Pedro operation July 4 and froze his local bank accounts. Villalobos suspended interest payments to his creditors last month. The accounts are frozen until at least Nov. 26.
PRAYER TO SAINT EXPEDITE
I come before you, Saint Expedite,
To remedy economic problems in my work and my home.
And to ask for your powerful support.
Saint Expedite, protect my income,
That I may obtain sufficient money for necessities,
And tranquillity and joy will reign in my house.
By your grace, Blessed Saint,
I request and pray that I will achieve my desire.
(State your petition)
And I will give thanks for your glorious intercession.
(Now promise to give Saint Expedite a specific offering if your desire is granted.)
Amen.