The swallows and Capistrano

Today, March 19, is the Feast of St. Joseph, the day when the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California, between San Diego and Los Angeles. Because of increasing urbanization in recent years, fewer birds had been sighted returning to the mud nests they have built in the old mission over the decades. For the last four years, under the direction of Dr. Charles Brown, an expert on the habits of the cliff swallows, the mission has used recordings of mating calls to lure more birds to the area. This will be the last year of the Swallows Vocalization Project, although Dr. Brown intends to continue with other projects to make sure that the birds make their legendary annual return.

On the subject of St. Joseph, I note that Jerome Gracián, who wrote a treatise on the glories of St. Joseph in the sixteenth century, asserted that the saint had all his teeth. The reason? It would have been unseemly for the man chosen as spouse and protector of the Virgin Mary and her child to have any defects. Gracián did not assert, however, that Joseph had all his hair, perhaps because Gracián himself was rather bald.