It's Bartlemas Day
Did you dash around St Bartholomew's chapel today and get your currant bun? No, you probably didn't. Some of the younger folk could have, though.
The tradition is that after a service in the chapel in honour of Bartholomew, children run around the church (one lap) and are given a currant bun for their efforts, while the adults are given a biscuit stamped with the seal of the hospital.
Read about this and some other St Bartholomew's Day traditions here at the wonderful Clerk of Oxford blog.
One of the great medieval fairs was London's St Bartholomew's Fair. It lasted until 1855. Ben Jonson even wrote a play about it.
And, as The Inn has mentioned once or twice before, the 24th of August is also a day of significance for the Carmelite Order:
On this day St Teresa of Avila founded the first of the Discalced Carmelite convents. Today is the feast of St Bartholomew the Apostle; St Teresa's constant companion and secretary during her work as foundress of the Carmelite reform was Sister Ann of St Bartholomew. On this day the Servant of God Anita Cantieri, O.C.D.S. died in 1942; she's one of the few Carmelite seculars proposed for canonization. On this day a brother was born to St Therese of the Child Jesus who died after a very short life. On this day St John of the Cross was proclaimed a doctor of the Church. On this day Pope John Paul II announced that would soon declare St Therese of the Child Jesus a doctor of the Church.
There are a few other events that make this day memorable, too. But I'm doing this from memory. The memory never was all that good and it's been a long day.
