The Feast Day of Matthew Shepherd

In liturgical calendars saints and martyrs are given Feast Days upon which their murders are remembered. The believers use this association to create a service of remembrance and worship complete with prayers and holy writ that recalls their lives and virtues and even the grisly circumstances of their torture and murders.

October 12th is the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepherd. A most unlikely saint. A young man who could have never imagined an afterlife of such honor or notoriety. To me, the perfect candidate for sainthood.

And to honor this memorial, I recommend the following: Read his mother's memoir, "The Meaning Of Matthew."

This is the most profound and personal way to honor his life. It takes this gentle and troubled soul off the cross of martyrdom and pedestal of icon, and presents him as real, accessible, no less beautiful. I can't recommend the book enough. Judy shows us how a profoundly intimate tragedy becomes an international cause celeb and then redeems her son from the myths of popular imagination back into a delightful, delinquent, delicate soul...i.e. real. And it's in the plain song of his true self that the full horror of his death finds it's most resonant chord. We are so quick to embrace ideas and idealize the things we embrace, this book made Matthew real for me in a way that has deepened by understanding and appreciation of all that his torture and death have come to represent. Just sayin'....