Onomastico/ Saint's day

Today is my onomastico, or Saint's day (literally "name's day"). The Saint's Day, is very popular in Italy. Every day, has the name of a saint, associated with it. Some of these days are more well-known than others. Everybody knows when St Joseph' day is, S. Giuseppe, it is also Italian Father's Day, on the 19th of March, San Mario is on 19th January.
S. Michele, S. Gabriele, S. Raffaele,the three Archangels are on the 29th September, S. Carlo on the 4th November (which is also the day the final battle if the First World War on the Italian front is commemorated), and S. Francesco, the Patron Saint of Italy, is on the 4th October, Santa Laura is on 19th October.
I never took much interest in my onomastico, but I have now got some lovely relatives who set great score, by these events. One of them has got a book, with all the Saint's Days, and the origin of them.

This morning, I got lots of nice wishes for my onomastico from them. I thought I ought to find out a bit about her. Well, the story started off alright. Angela Merici was born at Desanzano on Lake Garda - a lovely place - in 1474. Then, things seem to go horribly wrong and her life is full of tragedy. She rose above all this terrible tale of loss and pain, and dedicated her time to teaching young girls in her home, which she converted into a school. She founded the Order of Ursulines in 1535.

St. Angela is the Patron Saint of handicapped people and of the loss of parents.
I now feel very proud to have the same name as her.

My parents told me how I got my name. My Mum wanted to call me "Jacqueline", after her beloved bicycle! My Dad wasn't having any of it, so while we were still in the nursing home, he shot off to the Registry Office, and called me Angela, after an old flame of his. To appease my Mum, he then gave me two more names. One is her own mother's name, and the other, an anagram of her brother's name, who had died in the war.
So I ended up with a long name, that was very useful in the playground game, "Letters in your name". The idea was, that one person was chosen to call out letters at random, facing away from the other players. The one that arrived first, won. It was often me ...

By the way, the only people who ever called me "Angie", were my Mum and Dad. Friends in Britain tend to call me "Ange". My youngest son called me "Latchela", when he was a toddler, probably because he heard my Mother-in-Law refer to me as l'Angela, with the article, as they often do in Italy for feminine names. I really liked that.