Feast of Saint Benjamin - March 31

I need to wish my God-son, Brian's son, Ben a HAPPY FEAST DAY! Although our culture doesn't really celebrate these days, and since we are in Holy Week things should be toned down, I wanted to make sure that I honored you this day, and your namesake.

Today is the feast of Saint Benjamin. Although it isn't generally celebrated by Roman Catholics, he is quite important in the Orthodox churches.

St. Benjamin was a brave and loyal Christian. As a Martyr he died for his faith. I pray that my God-son will also be a bold and courageous defender of the faith, and willing to live it out in all aspects of his life. So appeal to your namesake in intercession, and pray that your Guardian Angel defends you and guides you in the path of the Saints before you. Know that many of us will be ready to help you and guide you along your path in life and throughout your faith journey.
Here is a little bit of info from Catholic.org:

St. Benjamin, Martyr (Feast Day - March 31) The Christians in Persia had enjoyed twelve years of peace during the reign of Isdegerd, son of Sapor III, when in 420 it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of Abdas, a Christian Bishop who burned the Temple of Fire, the great sanctuary of the Persians. King Isdegerd threatened to destroy all the churches of the Christians unless the Bishop would rebuild it.


As Abdas refused to comply, the threat was executed; the churches were demolished, Abdas himself was put to death, and a general persecution began which lasted forty years. Isdegerd died in 421, but his son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with great fury. The Christians were submitted to the most cruel tortures.


Among those who suffered was St. Benjamin, a Deacon, who had been imprisoned a year for his Faith. At the end of this period, an ambassador of the Emperor of Constantinople obtained his release on condition that he would never speak to any of the courtiers about religion.


St. Benjamin, however, declared it was his duty to preach Christ and that he could not be silent. Although he had been liberated on the agreement made with the ambassador and the Persian authorities, he would not acquiesce in it, and neglected no opportunity of preaching. He was again apprehended and brought before the king. The tyrant ordered that reeds should be thrust in between his nails and his flesh and into all the tenderest parts of his body and then withdrawn. After this torture had been repeated several times, a knotted stake was inserted into his bowels to rend and tear him. The martyr expired in the most terrible agony about the year 424.

Now I have talked about celebrating FEAST DAYS before... in lieu of birthdays but I think it is important to restate my position. I think that a good way to inject Catholic faith and culture into a family is to celebrate days that Halmark DOESN'T make cards for... but your local Catholic bookstore might. This doesn't mean ignore birthdays... it means celebrate a feast day! I mean... you could even do it every other year. This might be especially helpful for kids that have summer or winter birthdays and always wanted the opposite.

I wanted to originally name our child by a name of a saint upon the day in which they were born, but for various reasons we DIDN'T and I am glad. It allows us to shift the focus from a birthday, which is GREAT,  to our faith and celebrate that as well.