Saint Contraceptua Brown was a resident of Fogarty, Iowa, who died in 1955 after being read the works of Henry Miller to her by a male acquaintance; this caused the girl to break into a series of fatal screaming fits. Her screams were recorded and available as a relic. The Saint Contraceptua Youthful Anti-Smut League was named in her honor (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies, 98).
Inspiration[]
Hardly a likely name for any saint, being based on the word contraception, the church's favorite term for the forbidden practice of birth control. Bowen notes that it probably did not escape the author or many of his readers that the term contraception could also describe one of the preeminent ambitions of a virginal saint[1].
References[]
- ↑ Correspondence with Charles Bowen.