Chaos or an uncharred Irish saint

Today is Chaos Never Dies Day, the idea being that we should all surrender today to the idea that our crazy and hectic lives will remain crazy and hectic and to admit, if only to ourselves, that we'd probably go crazy if things got too peaceful.

We wanted to see if our crack research staff agreed with our understanding of today's microminiholidayette, but when we peered inside their office, they were all peacefully asleep at their desks. (A frequent sight here at The Blog of Days.) Perhaps today should be Chaos Never Dies Day... except in our crack research staff's rumpus room.

Photo by Andreas F. Borchert, from Wikipedia.

Today is also the Feast Day of St. Benignus of Armagh, an early Irish disciple of St. Patrick and supposedly his favorite.

Some favorite.

According to Wikipedia, on Easter Sunday in 433, Patrick and King Laoghaire argued at Tara over their respective religions. To settle their dispute, one of them proposed a trial by fire. Laoghaire grabbed a spare druid and Patrick volunteered Benignus.

Benignus and his druid counterpart were locked in a building that no one seemed to need very much and the building was set ablaze. The druid was reduced to a pile of ash, but Benignus escaped unscathed. Presumably, however, he was more suspicious thereafter when Patrick volunteered him for anything.