In a few weeks, I will fly out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for the first time since Jan. 29, when an airliner landing at the airport and a military helicopter collided over the Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard.
Until now, I would have told you I am not a nervous flier, but I don’t know if I can say that anymore. This disaster has hit home, partly because I know the airport well, having lived most of my life in the Washington area, and partly because my sister is on the FBI dive team responding to the collision. The fact that three more fatal plane crashes — in Pennsylvania, Alaska and Arizona — have followed in quick succession has not helped.
I do know that when I next fly from Reagan, I will be praying with great intentionality during takeoff and landing rather than pressing my nose against the window like a 5-year-old to take in the view, as I usually do. But which saint should I turn to for help? It turns out that nervous fliers have several options for heavenly aid.
Which saints can be invoked for nervous fliers?
There’s St. Joseph of Cupertino, the 17th-century Italian Franciscan who is said to have levitated, or flown, in prayer. His airborne ecstasies were such a disruption in the community that he was ordered to remain in his room, where a private chapel was prepared for him, for 35 years.
There’s also Our Lady of Loreto, named the patroness of aviators by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. Loreto is the site of the Holy House, a small building believed to be the home of the Virgin Mary. According to legend, angels winged the stones from the Holy Land to Italy in the 13th century. A more prosaic theory posits that the house was disassembled and moved in pieces by a patron family named Angelo. Whether the house really traveled by air or its mode of transport was more earthbound, Mary’s patronage of aviation seems appropriate. After all, she was assumed body and soul into heaven.
But neither of these saints, however powerful and appropriate, ever felt their stomach drop in air turbulence, swallowed in vain trying to pop the pressure in their ears, or braced themselves against a bumpy landing. (I’m guessing — unless ecstatic levitation and assumption are quite different than I imagine.)
Keeping calm during crises
If you want an intercessor who knows the uncertainties and fears of modern air travel, there’s no better choice than Pope St. John Paul II, who traveled an estimated 720,000 miles to 129 countries over 104 international journeys. Imagine the points!
The pope didn’t fly coach, but he did fly commercial airlines: Alitalia from Italy to his destination and that country’s national carrier back to Italy. And he experienced at least two emergency landings. One was in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. Flying from Port Moresby to Mount Hagen, the papal plane’s auxiliary power unit failed, causing a loss of cabin pressure and a return to Port Moresby.
A second emergency was more nail-biting. During a tour of southern Africa in 1988, the pope flew through a severe lightning storm on his way from Botswana to Lesotho. A reporter with Reuters who was on the flight later described the scene: “The plane veered from side to side and repeatedly lost altitude in sickening drops as rain lashed the windows. The journalists at the back of the plane became more than a little agitated with some yelling, others moaning quietly and yet others throwing up into their sick bags.”
The storm took out the plane’s navigation beacons, forcing the pilot to abort the landing in Lesotho and fly instead to Johannesburg, South Africa. Through it all, Pope John Paul is said to have remained calm. Perhaps he was praying to Our Lady of Loreto.
I know a saint’s power to intercede for us does not depend on him or her sharing our personal experiences. But when I next fly, I will think of Pope St. John Paul II’s serenity as his damaged plane bounced through a lightning-streaked sky and ask for the same trust in God’s providence.
Pope St. John Paul II, patron of frequent fliers, pray for us.
