Euro Weekly News - Axarquia 18 - 24 July 2019 Issue 1776

PETS
AT HouseSitMatch.com we understand
how important it is to
have pets relaxed and happy, being
cared for at home whenever
possible. This matters especially
when pets are particularly young
or mature in years. And when you
travel away from home you want
to make sure they stay relaxed
and healthy ideally in their own
home.
That’s what we do. We work to
find great house-sitters and petlovers.
Get in touch if you want
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everybody wins!
Unlike other house-sitting networks,
at Housesitmatch.com we
ID check all our members, and
manage the network to optimise
your experience. We do this because
it makes our network safer.
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Here’s what members have said
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Match.com
‘This was my second time using
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It’s a bit of a leap of faith having
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Home and pet owner - Lisa, cat
owner in Marbella
How you benefit as a home
and pet owner
Our membership offers access
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hide your contact details and address
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we publish the advert then housesitters
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You can view their profiles and
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If you join as a Premium member
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How you do join?
Please register online via our
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- Choose a membership plan
* Standard (DIY option) =
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* Premium (with support at
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Need a house-sitter? Get in touch. House-sitting is a win-win for both parties, free house and pet-sitting, and the checked sitters get free
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BARRY
DUKE
Saints and sinners
FIFTY years ago, a wise sceptic
advised that if I had any
questions about religion I
should always ask an atheist.
When I asked her why, Barbara
Smoker, who celebrated her
96th birthday this month,
replied: “Because people often
arrive at non-belief after they
have assiduously studied religious
texts and usually come to
know more about the subject
than most believers.”
When I asked how much research
she had done, she chuckled
and said “I was born into a
devout Catholic family and decided
to become a nun. So obviously
I did a great deal of
study.”
At the age of 26 she concluded
that religion was tosh, and
spent the rest of her life promoting
humanism. In fact, she’s
just published her autobiography,
‘My Godforsaken Life:
Memoir of A Maverick.’
Another of my contacts, Californian
artist Shell Fisher, also
knows a lot about holy scripture.
But he approaches
faith from another angle. He uses
his amazing talent to point
out religious absurdities, and
his illustrations are used in a
Freethinker bulletin sent out
weekly to several thousand subscribers.
Knowing how well-versed
Shell is in Christian mythology,
I asked him whether he knew
of the patron saint of lunatics.
To my surprise, he’d not heard
of Christina Mirabilis, known
as Christina the Astonishing.
Born in the 12th century in
Belgium, she suffered a massive
seizure in her early 20’s.
Assumed dead, she was about
to be buried but she arose from
her coffin and ‘levitated to the
rafters.’ She claimed to have
seen Hell, Heaven and the
Almighty, who sent her back to
save sinners.
According to legend, she
would throw herself into fires
and frozen rivers, allow dogs to
tear at her flesh, all the while
imploring God’s mercy.
Though covered in blood, her
CHRISTINA: About to be buried, arose from her coffin, and sent back to save sinners.
skin would immediately heal.
She lived in a forest, slept in
rags, and sustained herself by
suckling her breasts.
Now the reason I approached
Shell about Christina is that I
am currently writing an irreverent
article for the Freethinker
about some of the weirdest people
who attained patron saint
status, and I believed that he
was the best person on the planet
to illustrate the piece.
My article will document the
lives of people such as St Drogo,
who was afflicted by a mystery
ailment that made him
physically repulsive. So he’s
now considered the patron saint
of unattractive people.
Then there’s St Adjutor, the
patron saint of swimmers; St
Balthasar, the patron saint of
playing card manufacturers; St
Columbanus, the patron saint of
motorcyclists and St Lidwina,
the patron saint of ice skaters.
This Dutch woman fell while
ice skating at the age of 15 and
never fully recovered from her
injuries. After a life of piety and
pain which ended in 1433, her
grave became a site of pilgrimage.
She was canonised in 1899
by Pope Leo XIII.
But back to Christina the Astonishing.
I discovered that
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
performed a song about her in
1992. The lyrics are brilliant.
You can access them here:
https://genius.com/Nick-caveand-the-bad-seeds-christinathe-astonishing-lyrics.
Acclaimed songwriter George
Gershwin said it best when, in
1935, he wrote ‘The t’ings dat
yo’ li’ble/To read in de Bible/It
ain’t necessarily so ...