Chrisostomos MOZART

In honour of the 250th birthday of Mozart — named for the Saint, the Golden-Mouthed, whose memory is kept today …

I must inform [you] that on 27 January, at 8 p.m., my dear wife was happily delivered of a boy; but the placenta had to be removed. She was therefore astonishingly weak. Now, however (God be praised) both child and mother are well. She sends her regards to you both.

The boy is called Joannes Chrisostomos, Wolfgang, Gotlieb. [Leopold Mozart,1756]

On the Roman Catholic calendar, January 27 belonged to St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople and patron saint of orators. Gotlieb is “beloved of God”; in Latin, Amadeus. Wolfgang was in honor of his maternal grandfather, Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl. As a grown man he would sign himself “Wolfgang Amadé Mozart,” or just “Mozart.” But for now he was Wolfgang, or more affectionately, “Wolfgangerl.”

In his honour (Mozart’s, that is) the Huneycutts listened to his “greatest hits” this morning and watched “Amadeus” in the afternoon.

This, from his namesake …

27 January
Transfer of the Relics of St John Chrysostom

“The Magi adored Thy Body lying in the manger. It is not now lying in a crib that I see Thee, but upon the altar. There is no difference between this (the Eucharist) and that (in the manger). This is the same Body that was covered in blood, pierced by the spear, pouring forth the saving streams of blood and water, for the whole world. Thou, O Christ, didst soar up from the depths of the abyss in dazzling light and, leaving Thy rays there, ascended to Thy throne in the heavens. It is that same Body that Thou now givest us to hold and to eat!”
― St John Chrysostom