Just as Hagia (St.) Sophia is an embodiment of holy wisdom, St. Chiros is an embodiment of a sacred concept, Christians as God's holy hands.  We also honor the Holy Fool, which we decided was best understood as Hagia Sophia's lesser-known little sister Hagia Mora. <We'll do more / better with this page later, and even share the silly hagiography we created for St. Chiros!  Come back later to see the reason we jokingly venerate the Tardis...> We honor one Patron who did walk this earth:  St. Dunstan was abbot of Glastonbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, regularly in exile for speaking truth to power and a fine enough smith that he was blacksmith, goldsmith, and even a bellsmith (very hard to get those right!!).  The origin of the horseshoe for luck is a story about Dunstan catching the Devil who was bugging him at his forge - and nailing a horseshoe to his hoof!  Another time he is reputed to have caught the devil's nose in his tongs, and he's even a patron of magic!  His tale is a fascinating one that gives us much to laugh at and learn from. It won't take very long to see that the OSC is part of the greater Franciscan tradition... though a small oddball part that's got a lot of Celtic monastic influences.  We are discalced, and technically not a third order only because there is no *first* order... confused yet?  That's why we generally stay with the easier modern concepts! Ordo Sanctus Chiros - The Order of St. Chiros - OSC