Our popular speech is full of phrases, sayings and proverbs, each one more strange than the other, of which we barely know their origin. For example, the phrase the saint has gone to heaven What does it mean? Let's find out together.
Phrases and sayings of unknown origin, the saint has gone to heaven
The saint has gone to heaven It has a large company within the field of popular sayings of great antiquity. It happened in the times of Maricastaña. Whoever goes to Seville loses his chair. He entered as Peter through his house. Saved by the Bell. All these are phrases that we repeat continuously, without even thinking about revolts against church taxes, rival archbishoprics, historical military conquests or cases of premature burials.
Academic research on this type of expression is not only extremely entertaining for the researcher, who can combine expertise and popular interest. It is also a resource to make the weight of historical events felt and to understand the connections that still exist between medieval or eighteenth-century times with today's world.
Thus, an insomniac of today who spend the night awake can be twinned with a knight who watched his weapons at night. And the person who feels labeled by society with a sanbenito you can feel part of the penitent procession during the Inquisition. In the following video you can see more cases.
painful lapse
In ancient times, a preacher was in charge of enumerating names of the endless Catholic saints, each one with its virtues. Suddenly, the rhetorical catastrophe occurred: he completely forgot the name of the saint he praised. And as soon as the error came came the happy jocular comment. The saint has gone to heaven.
The occurrence was celebrated and soon reproduced in different contexts to signify that moment when the mind goes blank, the thread is lost or knowledge is directly lost. Thus was born a new phrase of the common repertoire.
If you liked this article about the phrase the saint has gone to heaven, you may be interested in this article about other historical curiosities, this time about The Garden of Earthly Delights. Follow the link!