A great many soldiers carry with them some small artistic, some touchstone or lucky piece or symbol which if they are lucky in battle takes on an ever-increasing importance. And being lucky in battle means simply not being hurt. St Christopher's medals are carried by Catholics and non-Catholics alike and in any cases are not considered as religious symbols at all, but as simply lucky pieces.
The magic articles are of all kinds. There will be a smooth stone, and odd-shaped piece of metal, small photographs encased in cellophane. Many soldiers consider pictures of their wives or parents to. be almost protectors from danger. One soldier had removed the handles from his colt 45 and had carved new ones out of Plexiglas from a wrecked airplane. Then, he installed photographs of his children under the Plexiglas so that his children looked out of the handle of his pistol.
Sometimes coins are considered lucky, and rings and pins. usually articles which take their quality from some intimacy with people at home, a gift or the symbol of old emotional experiences. One man carries a locket his dead wife. wore as a child and another a string of anther beads his mother once made him wear to ward off colds. The beads: now ward off danger.
The association between a man and his amulet becomes. not only very strong, but very private. This is partly a fear of being laughed at, but also a feeling grows that to tell about it is to rob it of some of its powers. Also, there is the feeling that the magic must not be called on too often; The virtue of the piece is not inexhaustible. It can run down, therefore it is better to use it sparingly and only to call on it when the need is great.
Whatever the cause of this reliance on magic amulets in war-time, it is so. And the practice is by no means limited to ignorant or superstitious men. It would seem that in times of great danger and great emotional tumult, a man has to reach outside himself for help and comfort, and has to have some supra-personal symbol to hold to. It can be anything at all, an old umbrella handle, or a religious symbol, but he has to have it. There are times in war when the sharpest emotion is not fear, but loneliness and littleness. And it is during these times that the smooth stone or the Indian-head penny or the wooden pigs are not only desirable but essential.
```Do St. Christopher's medals serve as lucky pieces only for Catholics?