Off to Australia today - the feast of St Matilda!

St Matilda - not known for her waltzing

I find this rather droll, that today of all days, when we start our journey to Australia, it should coincide with the feast of St Matilda.

Of course, St M had nothing to do with Australia, she was born in Germany in the late 9th century and married Henry the Fowler, son of the Duke of Saxony.
She was, by all accounts, a charitable soul who stayed close to the seat of power after her husband's death (he had then succeeded to his father's Dukedom).

So, my prayers will have to be directed to Australia's dedicated patron saints; first and foremost, Our Lady Help of Christians and then, to a lesser degree, St Therese de Lisieux, St Francis Xavier and, of course, the great St Mary McKillop.

Of course, I shall say a prayer to St Matilda also, it would be churlish not to.
And yes, I do know that a 'matilda' is a traveller's bag.

Blogging will be a little sporadic from now until 16th April when we shall be back in Blighty.
But there will be one last post in a few hours, an extract of a rather good medieval story about a monk and Our Lady.

After that, watch out for occasional posts from Linen on the Eucalypts!