Saint Anastasia (Responding to future weekly challenge)

Introduction 

Who is a saint? A saint is a person that either performed a miracle in life or was martyred, and in death was prayed to. A saint’s patronage could be: music, stars, Ireland, you name it. You often pray to a saint relating to the patronage.


Backstory

“Anastasia! You don’t have time to ogle at dogs all day long when there is work to be done!” Yells her(grumpy) father “Now, please go gather dinner from the shed.”

“Yes, father.” Anastasia replies dutifully and trudges through the thick snow to the dense forest, where the shed is. A faint whimpering bounces off of the pines, their nettles hiding the setting sun from view. I must be going mad in this long, cold winter she thought to herself, but the mournful whining carried on, filling the woods with sound. Forgetting the shed, I rushed to where the whining was coming from, and stopped in a clearing when I saw a little pup curled up.

I ran to it and threw my cloak around it, hoping to stave off the vicious elements.

I raced to the shed, lit a fire, and huddled up with the little German Shepard To keep warm. I fed it a little bit of bread and meat, and prayed to god for the pup, her eyes staring up at me. I gathered a bit of food for dinner and set off back towards our house.

Main Story

When Anastasia got older, her dog, Snuffles, grew to an almighty size, rivaling a horse’s stature. One crisp spring evening, while Ana and Snuffles were riding through town, voices intruded on the silence of the hills.”Gimme your money, all of it! And the necklace!”Threatened a gruff Roman man holding a pocket knife to a poor Christian girl. The girl fumbled with trembling hands to get out the money and her cross, and was handing it over, when Snuffles leapt through the air and pulled her out of sight, flinging her on his back with the help of Ana. The Roman mugger shouted and yelled for them to come back, but they just rode all the faster, delivering the girl back to her cottage to her awaiting father.

Several more occurrences like this happened, not just for Christians, but for all people in need, spreading the word of god, until the end of the Roman persecution, and Anastasia and Snuffles knew that their time had come to retire. So they settled into a cottage in the very woods where they met and lived the rest of their days there in peace.

ccfitz

VT

12 years old

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