Expedite
EXPEDITE
In the August 1977 READERS DIGEST, there was an article about St. Expedite, whose statue is in the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, N. Conti and Rampart Streets, New Orleans, LA. The article said a crate was delivered to the church; the only indication of the contents was the Italian writing, “spedito” (meaning “rush”). On seeing a saint inside, the Church officials took this to be the name of the saint, and put him behind the altar rail with the other statues. It was claimed that this is the only statue of St. Expedite in the Western world. I was in New Orleans and visited the church, saw the statue, and bought a prayer card about St. Expedite in the book room. The attendant there said they knew very little about this saint.
Frank Scorza, a converted priest from Italy, now a missionary, in his unpublished manuscsript about the Roman Catholic saints, states, “The worship of St. Expedite originated at the beginning of the 20th century, and spread quickly throughout Italy, particularly in the province of Naples. His name originated from a play on words which meant rapid or dispatch; believing he could grant favors as fast as an express train.
I wrote to tyhe archdiocese of Baton Rouge, LA, and received this reply from Rev. Lawrence Taufoldo, 7/31/80. “Now to St. Expedite. We dont know very much about the life of this saint, but the devotion has survived for centuries. St. Expedite is very much venerated among the Sicilians.”
From Butler’s LIVES OF THE SAINTS, “It is more than doubtful whether the saint ever existed. . . there is much to suggest that the introduction of the saint’s name is merely a copyists’s mistake.
“A packing case, containing a corpo sancto from the catacombs was sent to a community of nuns in Paris. They used the word `spedito’ on the case and the recipients mistook this for the name of a martyr and set to work with great energy to propagate his cult.”
He is the saint to be invoked against procrastination.