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Three Chilly Saints
Thu May 01, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Last month's Brainstorm was a toughie, but our listeners dug into the research, and came up
with some great answers.
The question was: who are Mamertius, Pancratius, and Servatus, and what have they to do with
weather. Here's Eric Paulson who listens on WBFO in Buffalo:
EP: I found out that St. Mamertius, St. Pancratius, and St. Servatus are known in German and
Swiss folklore as The Ice Saints, or Chilly Saints. They are thought to usher in a cooling
trend in the weather that occurs between May 12 and May 15 in the Gregorian calendar. In
Germany, these days were called the "Eismanner," or "Iceman Days." People believed it was not
safe to plant until after the Ice Men were gone.
Steven Dow, of Epping, NH, adds some historical insight:
SD: So, you know this cooling trend actually got Pope Gregory the VIII's attention - I
believe it was Gregory the VIII. He arranged the calendar - the Julian calendar - and made a
reform in 1582.
The Julian calendar was corrected to the sun year, to a large extent, and the effects of the
Ice Saints in Europe were felt in the time span of May 19th to May 22nd.
As Steven also discovered, there is confusion about the names:
SD: I had a little difficult time initially until I backed up, because Panc... let's see,
Panc... Pancratius... St. Pancratius is St. Pancrus also. Almost Pancreas, you, know. It's
getting confusing here.
As we found, Servatus is also sometimes called "Gervais."
We will post information and links to the Chilly Saints on our website,
www.weathernotebook.org. Thanks to Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
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