Saints, saints, everywhere!

"Saints, saints everywhere. The next time you drive though a town whose first name is 'Saint', it might be interesting to find out the derivation of that name. If it is named after a Catholic Saint, why that Saint?" 

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I am taking my oldest daughter down to St. Paul to watch a afternoon hockey game. Wait - are you nuts Bird? Do you know what kind of a zoo St. Paul is on St. Patrick's Day? Yep - been there before on that day, and it can be mayhem. But it is a commitment I made a while ago (before I knew it was St. Patrick's Day), and I will honor it. Even though I do not have a drop of Irish blood running through my veins, I have donned a green shirt and am ready to go.

Did you ever stop and think (or maybe wonder), why we have so many cities named after Saints in our country? First off, we have St. Paul, our capitol city. Named after the Apostle Paul, the man who wrote much of the New Testament. Then we have St. Peter, just south of St. Paul. Named after Peter, the Disciple who Jesus wanted to build His church. Then, just north of St. Paul, we have St. Cloud. Named after - a cloud who was sainted? What the heck?

Like I said, today is St. Patrick's Day. The day the Irish remember the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland. Not to be outdone, if you were Finnish, yesterday was St. Urho Day. That is the day that St. Urho drove the grasshoppers out of Finland. Of course, this was just those pesky Finns poking fun at the Irish. Urho is about as real as Micky Mouse is.

Actually, in the United States, there are 54 American cities which start with Saint. These include St. Louis, which is one of the largest cities in the Union. But let's get back to Minnesota for a minute. What is up with this St. Cloud name? Where the heck did that come from? 

The city of St. Cloud, Minnesota has a long and complicated history in its naming. I will cut to the chase by saying that due to some jokesters in France, the city of Saint Cloud is a suburb of Paris, and pronounced, "san cloo". It was adopted by Benton County in Minnesota, to name their large and growing city after. Just like that, Minnesota is probably the only city with Saint in its title, which was not named after a well known Catholic Saint. However, there really was a French Saint called, Clodoald. His name became known to many as "Cloud" instead. And there you have how St. Cloud got its name.   

To be fair, there are three other cities named Saint Cloud. One in Florida, which is almost as big as the one in Minnesota. And two tiny bergs named St. Cloud - one in Wisconsin and one in Missouri.

Saints, saints everywhere. The next time you drive though a town whose first name is "Saint", it might be interesting to find out the derivation of that same. If it is named after a Catholic Saint, why that Saint? Just and idea. It is kind of fun to learn about some of the ins and outs of how we got to be what we got to be.