Melleny

[Lars Martin Fosse]

>
>Dear Philp. Patrick and Olivelle,
>
>I have a niece in Bangalore whose name is Melanie. Her friends write it in
>all possible ways: Malini, Melleny, Melony.... You know there are about 17
>million christians in India and we were until some years ago forced to have
>an European saint's name at our baptism. I was for example baptised with
>the name "Boniface" which I changed to "Anand" when I was adult. The
>European missionaries just couldn't believe us when we said that we were
>going to be the first christian  saints with names like "Krishnamoorthy"
>Ramagopalachari" "Janadhana" and so forth. And so were forced to have
>ghastly names like Victor, Caesar and Napoleon... 

I never heard about a Christian saint called Napoleon!! And saint Caesar is
new to me, too. Or did the missionaries simply believe that all Europeans
should be regarded as saints?

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse