St. Elmo's Fire

LXXI

 

St. Erasmus of Formia (also known as Erasmo or Elmo) was an early Christian martyr who lived between the end of the Third and the beginning of the Fourth Centuries. According to his biography, "The Acts of St. Erasmus," his youthful conversion to Christianity was profound, and he suffered many tortures at the hands of Roman officialdom, including both the Emperors of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.

His miracles were also many, and he is accounted among the fourteen Holy Helpers of the Catholic Church. Erasmus' first miracle occurred when, it is said, a nimbus of blue light appeared around his head and shoulders as he preached the Gospel in a marketplace. This was taken as a sign of his spiritual potency by many. He was dragged off by others to be tortured for his presumption.

Ultimately, St. Erasmus met his martyrdom by having his innards pulled out with a windlass, a common implement aboard sailing vessels. That is why he is often shown in paintings and figures holding a windlass handle or with his hand on a windlass.

The miraculous blue light seen by his followers soon bore his name, and it has come down to us today known as "St. Elmo's Fire."

St. Elmo's Fire is not a miracle or an illusion, but a physical phenomenon, caused when electrically charged air ionizes, producing plasma. It is generally seen in storm conditions and during volcanic eruptions, and is associated scientifically with unsettled atmospheric conditions.

St. Elmo's Fire tends to occur around items that come to a point or a head. It is and was often seen around the masts and spars of tall ships, around the tops of trees, around leaves, around church spires and steeples, around radio masts and skyscrapers, around aircraft wings, noses and stabilizers, around helicopter rotors, around the upper halves of standing humans (St. Erasmus' miracle), and even around the horns of cattle.

St. Elmo's Fire usually appears as a bluish or violet glow, accompanied by a low humming or buzzing sound. It is startling and unexpected, but not dangerous, carrying a very weak electrical charge. It can dissipate quickly, appear intermittently, or persist for long periods of time.

The appearance of St. Elmo's Fire in the vicinity of ships (and his grotesque death by windlass) led the Church to name St. Erasmus the patron saint of sailors and stomach ailments (doubly appropriate when one considers how much bellyaching sailors are wont to do aboard ship).

The appearance of St. Elmo's Fire was seen as a sign of the saint's intercession, and the phenomenon often occurs as storms are passing. As it may have done on May 6, 1937 at Lakehurst.

Certainly, St. Elmo's Fire was known to the crews of airships, and to passengers, who, once reassured, enjoyed the play of the light over the hull, the faint whiff of ozone, and the snap, crackle and pop that accompanied the light show that sometimes followed sailing through turbulent weather. But no one has ever been hurt and no ship lost to St. Elmo's Fire.

Except perhaps the Hindenburg.