We have seen swimmers like Stephen Redmond, the first person to complete the Oceans Seven; he used to kneel and pray intensely and fervently before his channel swims. And they constantly draw strength during their swim through deeply held faith and frequent prayer. Redmond recalled during his 22-hour 30-minute crossing of the Molokai Channel, “Never give up…too far to fail…swim Molokai… [a mantra] which I must have said millions of time to myself…along with many prayers to St. Jude…“
Millions of people ask for the intercession of St. Jude, the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes. Sometimes when in the middle of a channel in rough or cold weather conditions one may feel, even an expert swimmer like Redmond, as if in a desperate situation. But the Catholic Church has provided a special patron for the swimmers in the person of St. Adjutor.
Over 890 years ago, St. Adjutor was fighting on behalf of the Church, but he was captured in Jerusalem. He was chained, tortured, and locked in a prison off the coast of Palestine. Miraculously, he escaped from his cell inside a castle, and without hesitation, dove into the Mediterranean Sea and swam to the shore where he managed to joine his colleagues.
St. Adjutor later became a Benedictine monk. He lived in an abbey near the River Seine. Many boatmen have lost their lives in a nearby whirlpool. A local bishop and St. Adjutor later had the opportunity to sail towards the whirlpool. On the edge of the whirlpool, the bishop sprinkled holy water into River Seine and gave his blessing. As St. Adjutor said, “It is as easy for God to free people from this whirlpool as it was for him to free me from my chains,” the whirlpool immediately became calm.
After his death, St. Adjutor became the Catholic Church’s patron saint of swimmers, boaters and yachtsmen. His feast day is on April 30th as his death occurred on the same date in the year 1131.