I’m finishing up book #1 in my three-book Pocket Guide deal with Jossey-Bass: Pocket Guide to Sainthood. And there are so many good/weird/funny stories that it was a challenge to keep the book pocket-sized. It seriously could have been called Suitcase-Sized Guide to Sainthood, which has the alliteration thing going for it but isn’t nearly as catchy.

Anyway, I think it would be fun to slowly leak out some of the content over the course of these, um, 18 long months until it hits shelves. So here’s the first little snippet. Please comment if you can add to or otherwise improve the following:

(from the last chapter, which is a collection of miscellaneous lists)

Six Saints with Ridiculously Dull Names

1. St. Blandina, a 2nd century martyr

2. St. Faith, a 3rd century martyr

3. St. Chad, a 4th century bishop in Northumbria

4. St. Bean, an 11th century bishop in Scotland

5. St. Eric of Sweden, a 12th century king

6. St. John of God, a 16th century Portuguese friar

Seriously. Saint Chad? That’s awesome.

I’ll send a free signed copy of Pocket Guide to the Bible to the first person who can tell me where, in the history of pop culture, the phrase “ridiculously dull” has been used before in relation to a person’s name. It’s probably been used in multiple places, of course, but you have to tell me where I got it from. Hint: It was a TV show.

Put your answer in the comments thread and I’ll get in touch with you.