Well.....now you know Sven's real name. :) John Karl Laval. What you may not be aware of is the fact that each of these names is very significant to us. So let me clue you in.
As Catholics, we are encouraged to use either the first or middle name of a child as an homage to a Saintly man or woman. I say encouraged as it is not a hard and fast rule and not everyone follows this practice. But Dave and I have always felt very strongly about having a baptismal Saint to help intercede on our little one's behalf. We have always taken this seriously and put much thought, research, and prayer into the selection of baptismal Saints/first or middle names for the boys. St. Thomas More and St. Thomas Becket were each chosen for specific reasons and not just because we liked the name of Thomas and Becket.
But for John Karl Laval.....well, Dave has always joked that our boys will follow the medieval path:
The eldest = inherits the estate
The middle = must find his way in a trade of some sort
The youngest = will be given to the Church
Hahahahahaha. We jest but....we have set John up for such a contingency as two of his names are after amazing Saints....and the third name is after an incredible priest. :)
John
Since we went to Prague in 2006, Dave has been campaigning to name a child after St. John Nepomuk....a patron Saint of Europe from the 1300's, of whom Bohemia has a particular devotion to. I refused to have a middle name be Nepomuk....even though our dear friend, Jason Winfield, and our dear priest friend, Father Marsolle, joined Dave's campaign for such a thing to happen. However, I have always liked the name John. But why this John, you may ask?! We toyed with St. John of the Cross and St. John de Brebeuf as well....but always came back to St. John Nepomuk. Two reasons really: 1) whatever story you read, the gist is that he stood up to state authority and maintained the authority of the Church. 2) We have both stood where he was martyred (for the reason stated above) by being thrown off the Charles Bridge into the Valta River in Prague and we have stood in front of his tomb in St. Vitus Cathedral....also in Prague. Just like Thomas More and Thomas Becket, John Nepomuk did not back down in matters of Faith when the ruling gov't demanded it of him. That strength of character and Faith is something we hope our boys will have.
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| Our picture from our trip to Prague in 2006 |
Karl
Speaking of our beloved friend, Father Marsolle......the name Karl is after him. Yes. It's true. Fr. Karl Marsolle came to our church immediately upon becoming an ordained priest with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and he was at our church for 2 years. He is originally from the Caribbean Island of Guadalupe....which, sadly, I admit to not knowing it even existed prior to knowing Fr. M. As a result, his first language is French and his English accent is beautiful. :) He baptized Jakob and was one of the first to call him the "little Viking". When Jakob was 9 months old and spent 8 hours in the ER for dehydration due to an illness, Fr. Marsolle came to the hospital to be with me and Jakob and give him a blessing. While he was transferred to a different parish on the east coast when Jakob was not yet one, we have kept in touch with him as he is a man and a priest that you hope to keep in your life. He has an uncanny knack for calling or sending us an e-mail on days when we need it the most. And it doesn't hurt that he LOVES Dave's margaritas. :) Days before his final Sunday at our parish, we took him to dinner and when he left our house....and Dave and I were both choking back tears from saying goodbye to him, I looked at Dave and said, "If we're ever blessed with another son, he will be named after that man." And Dave agreed with his whole heart.
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| A surprise visit from Fr. Karl Marsolle! |
Laval
I campaigned hard for this name to be included. Dave was on board with the name....but unsure if he wanted there to be a second middle name for little John. I'm told two middle names are a very Southern thing though so I came from that angle....and the fact that I couldn't fathom not including Laval's name into the mix. Bishop Francois Laval was the first bishop of Quebec and is credited as being the Father of the Church in Canada. He lived during the 1600's, was born in France to a noble family, was slated to be a missionary to Vietnam, and was sent to New France (Quebec) instead where he lived the rest of his life in the service of the people there. He was a man of utmost integrity, devotion to the Faith, and charity to all people. He died penniless as he had given all of his fortune to the Church and to the poor of Quebec. His seminary produced priests that would flood New France with the Faith. I first learned of Laval when I read Willa Cather's Shadows on the Rock (one of my top 5 favorite books of all time). Though the work is fiction of an historical nature, I was struck by his character and learned more about the man. And then last year, when Dave surprised me with the trip to Quebec, we walked in his footsteps through every inch of that town. We toured his seminary. We visited the Ursuline nuns whose order had worked so closely with him. We visited his Cathedral and practically sat next to his tomb as we attended Mass. And we both prayed at his tomb that we be blessed with another pregnancy....a healthy pregnancy. We prayed that this man, who helped form boys into men and many of those men into priests, would intercede on our behalf with this special intention, especially as we already had two boys at home. (Maybe one reason why we had yet another boy!) I have felt a special connection to him for a while and was adamant that his name be included. Besides, with all the Saints in the Faith's history.....it is rather neat for this one to be considered a North American Saint....and one that we can visit quite easily, without having to leave the continent.
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| St. Bishop Laval |
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| Our picture of when we visited his tomb |
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