Expedit

This article deals with the Catholic saint.

• In Austria, Expedit also refers to the shipping department of a company or institution, see goods issue .
• Expeditus Schmidt OFM (birth name Carl Hermann Schmidt; 1868–1939), German Franciscan, who was a writer, editor, theater and literary historian before the First World War and in the interwar period.
• Expedit was a shelf by Ikea that was sold from 2000 to 2014.

Expedit , actually Expedítus (Latin: "the liberated, the ready to fight") († 303 ) was, according to legend, a Roman centurion in Armenia who professed Christianity.

Large street altar, Réunion

Hut altar on a street, Réunion

Legend has it that the day he decided to become a Christian, the devil told him in the shape of a crow that he should be converted the next day, whereupon Expeditus kicked the bird and shouted, “I will become a Christian today be! Today!"

The holy day is April 19th . Expedit is especially revered in Chile and on the island of Réunion .

Adoration of the saint in the Catholic Church

Figures in the manger

Votive offerings

Within the Catholic Church it is doubted whether Expedit actually existed, but this question has not been finally clarified.

Worship on the island of Reunion

Expedit is especially revered on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. At the roadside there are bright red altars in his honor, where believers leave votive offerings in thanks for fulfilled requests . The altars vary in size and contain one or more legionary statues representing the saint.

In the veneration of the expedit, unofficial Catholic features can be found alongside elements from Madagascar and India . Especially people from the lower classes ask him for a divine grace, such as a job. Since the worship of the Holy Expedit is socially outlawed and its widespread and apparently well-kept altars are generally not visited in public, the number of his worshipers is unknown.

According to some legends that are told in Reunion, the name of St. Expedit comes from a kind of mishap: at some point a package with a statue of a saint was sent there, which was damaged in transit. The only inscription on it was probably “Expedit” (French: expéditeur for “sender”). Christian Morgenstern processed similar stories for his poem "St. Expeditus".

Worship in Chile

A devotee of the Holy Expedit asked Chilean priests to help build a church for the saint. It is said that the request was first rejected by the local authorities, but then approved within nine days after a request to Expedit. Since then, the veneration of the sacred expedition in Chile has grown by leaps and bounds; Poor and rich pray to him, and his shrine in Viña is a popular place of pilgrimage, especially in the summer months.

literature

• Jean-Gabriel Fosty: The Sacred Expedit. Soldier and martyr . Kanisius, Freiburg 1961.
• Nancy Gauthier: Mémoire et Histoire. Le culte de saint Expédit à la Réunion . In: Claire Sotinel, Maurice Sartre (ed.): L'usage du passé entre Antiquité tardive et haut Moyen Âge , pp. 133-145. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2008, ISBN 978-2-7535-0728-9 .
• Paul W. Roth: Soldiers Saints , Verlag Styria, Graz Vienna Cologne, 1993, ISBN 3-222-12185-0

Web links

Commons : Expeditus  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Expedit in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/news/vermischtes/Ende-von-Ikea-Regal-Expedit-sracht-fuer-Proteste-article1271152.html
2. ↑ Info on catholic-forum.com ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Christian Morgenstern: "St. Expeditus" (online, accessed on May 1, 2017, 1:10 p.m.)