MrsOC's Feral House of Bongos Presents: DIDACUS

The Saint Song
A short song naming over a hundred saints,
sung to the tune of a popular Gilbert and Sullivan song
AKA known as 'The Element Song by Tom Lehrer

SAINT DIDACUS:

Born in Cadiz, Spain, and christened Joseph Francis, the youth spent much of his free time around the Capuchin friars and their church. But his desire to enter the Franciscan Order was delayed because of the difficulty he had with his studies. Finally he was admitted to the novitiate of the Capuchins in Seville as Brother Didacus. He later was ordained a priest and sent out to preach. His gift of preaching was soon evident. He journeyed tirelessly through the territory of Andalusia of Spain, speaking in small towns and crowded cities.

His words were able to touch the minds and hearts of young and old, rich and poor, students and professors. His work in the confessional completed the conversions his words began. This unlearned man was called "the apostle of the Holy Trinity" because of his devotion to the Trinity and the ease with which he preached about this sublime mystery. One day a child gave away his secret, crying out: "Mother, mother, see the dove resting on the shoulder of Father Didacus! I could preach like that too if a dove told me all that I should say."

Didacus was that close to God, spending nights in prayer and preparing for his sermons by severe penances. His reply to those who criticized him: "My sins and the sins of the people compel me to do it. Those who have been charged with the conversions of sinners must remember that the Lord has imposed on them the sins of all their clients." It is said that sometimes when he preached on the love of God he would be elevated above the pulpit. Crowds in village and town squares were entranced by his words and would attempt to tear off pieces of his habit as he passed by. He died in 1801 at age 58, a holy and revered man. He was beatified in 1894.

Comment: Didacus was such a poor student that the Franciscans wouldn’t have him. When Capuchins finally took him into their order and eventually ordained him, he proved to be a powerful preacher—to everyone’s surprise. As we often do, Didacus’s contemporaries expected little from someone with a slow mind. Didacus proved to them that intelligence is not the only measure. The person who has a loving heart, a listening ear and a wealth of compassion is, in the long run, much wiser.

Let the Bongos Begin!

Didacus was a preacher-man
A saint of wide reknown
His voice would echo through the chapels
All around Cadiz town.
The Franciscans wouldn't have him
The thought his wit too meager
So he was forced to join the Capuchins
Who proved to be more eager
Under their cowl he learned to speak
And words poured forth like wine
Or unction on the open sores
Afflicting all mankind
Despise the Franciscans he could've
Had he before God no dread
But took it all in stride, and said
"I always wanted a white foamy head."
~ Lucius Septimius

We are called upon to witness
To teach to the world
The words of salvation and grace
Didacus, the teacher
Rejected as too dim
He would not heed to judgment
The voice of pride
But found his own voice
In service and humility
It is truly a miracle
And most worthy of God
When the faith of man
Overcomes the pride of man
It is the word, the spirit
The water of life
Which opens the mouth
When called, he heard
When humble, he was filled
Where he had been mute
He spoke now the words of Grace
Like Peter the Rock
Who when the tongues of flame
Anointed his dull head
And rewarded his faithfulness
And the humility and pain
That followed his final faithlessness
With the word of truth
The greatest sermon of all
Preached by the one who seemed dim
By the measure of the world
But whom God chooses
To be his voice.
~ Lucius Septimius

Blessed Didacus of Cadiz

Went to buy a Cadillac

But his credit only heaven
Would describe as "In the black".
So he settled for a Hyundai
Sporty model though it be
And the lesson for us all is
Shop and live humility.
~mrsoc

I could not even fakus
a poem about Didacus
~ Q the Lone Deranger

(coughs quietly)
There once was a man named St. Didacus
Who yearned to study Leviticus
Concerned as he was with priestly legislation
He schemed to effect total monopolization
Not only the Franciscans who rejected him so thoroughly
But also those Capuchin Friars who embraced him assuredly.
~ Chief Glowing Clackers of Nanuk


Saint Didacus
got himself preordoomed
So he took his one way ticket ta palooksaville
and rode like thunder
All the way to the end of the line

Wholly Heyoka around the edges
You don't make Tzadikim without driving wedges

Pretty good for a bad student.
The Franciscans can kiss his moderately schizoid ass.
~ BabbaZee

Didacus, they made a saint.
though back in the day,
they swore he ain't.
He didn't do what the saintly do ~
he had no fork,
no silver spoon.
Didacus, constrained by fate
They swore he can't,
they sez he ain't.
Joseph, Francis,
What's yer face?
Just hit the bricks,
stay off our place.
Didacus, they swear he ain't
made of the what
to be a saint.
You can not walk
The Franciscan Way!
Moron!
Clod!
Subpar!
cried they ~
Go clean the barn!
Go bail some hay!
Go darken someone else's day!
Didacus, it's just your fate
ain't got the what
what makes a saint.
Inside your skull
much stone reposes...
Didacus thought,
he'd say that to Moses....
Moron?
Clod?
Subpar?
am I?
We'll see what's who,
We'll see who's why!
Didacus, constrained by fate
They sez he can't,
they swears he ain't.
So Didacus becomes The Great,
despite the what
they said he ain't.
Behold the Sainthood
of the Ain't
by scars
subpars
and clods of taint.
Andalusians of grandeur, meet fingers of fate.
~ BabbaZee

Camille Saint-Saëns
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
As performed by Itzhak Stern