Be that as it may, returning from the Three Hours Agony Devotions and the afternoon liturgical service at my parish, I did allow myself to have a “liquid lunch” in his honor. Fasting and abstaining from all meat, eggs and dairy I did not eat any pizza, or anything else for that matter, but I did break in my new stoneware stein with a nice cold Paulaner bier.
For the sake of new readers unfamiliar with our custom, we drink Paulaner because it was originally brewed in Bavaria in 1634 to help support the charitable works of the Minims, a mendicant order of monks founded by St. Francis in the fifteenth-century. The name Paulaner itself is a corruption of Paola, the town in Provincia di Cosenza where St. Francis was born. It also helps that the golden Bavarian elixir taste great. Evviva San Francesco di Paola!
