Coincidence? Fate? Destiny!

Diana's story was included in issue #1 and it's one of my favorites. I had to cut out a bit to make it fit but edited it in a way to emphasize the coincidence of being named the same as the Saint attributed to her birthday without her mother even knowing it! I absolutely love coincidences and wondering their significance in the grand scheme. And, I love how she mentions this because it reminds me of my own mother's name story. Diana is Nick's mom and she is much younger than my mom but she's just as catholic and it's interesting to see how common being named after a Saint was in the past. Can you imagine anyone now-a-days looking up a Saint's feast day to name their child after them? Naming babies has come a long way since then and it seems to be used by most today as either a way to be different, a way to honor a family member, or as some sort of status symbol. I wonder if Catholics our age are still looking to the Saints for name inspiration or if that's a long forgotten tradition.

DIANA

My first name is Diana and my birthday is June 9th. My mom says that she just wanted to call me that because she liked the name and it was a different way to name me after St. Anna. Well, being Catholic, it is appropriate to be named for a saint rather than the Roman or Greek Goddesses. To the Romans I am Diana, to the Greeks I am Athena. To both I am sister to Apollo and protectress of virgins as well as goddess of the moon and hunt. Two languages, same name. In some ways, those meanings applied to my life before I was even old enough to understand it. A few years back I ran across an article covering the life of an Italian woman who became St. Diana. She lived in the 13th century during the time of St. Dominic and was a devoted follower of his. She lived up to the aspirations of the goddesses by fighting her family to remain a nun. My mother didn't know that the two names are the same in the different tongues. Nor did she know that there was a St. Diana. All saints have a day of the year in which to be remembered, even if they share it with others. Her feast day? June 9th. 

Coincidence? FATE? Destiny!