Saint Samuel

Samuel was a prophet and judge in Israel in the eleventh century before Christ, and his story begins with his mother. Hannah could not have children, and for that she was mocked by her husband’s other wife. She went to the shrine at Shiloh to pray, moving her lips without making a sound, so that the priest Eli took her for a drunk. She had a son and consecrated him: as soon as he was weaned, she brought him to Shiloh and left him there. It was there that he received his call, in one of the most beautiful scenes in the Bible. The boy is sleeping in the temple and hears someone call his name; he runs to Eli, who tells him he must be mistaken. It happens three times. The third time, it’s the old priest who understands, and he teaches him what to answer: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” As a grown man he led Israel in the years when the country passed from the judges to the monarchy — and he made that change reluctantly. When the people asked him for a king “like the other nations,” Samuel warned them what would happen: he will take your sons for his wars, your daughters for his kitchens, your best fields, and one day you will cry out because of the king you chose for yourselves. Then he obeyed, and anointed Saul. When Saul failed, he anointed a shepherd boy from Bethlehem: David. His name means “his name is God,” but in Aramaic it sounds like “the Lord has heard.” If your name is Samuel, today is your name day.