St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies
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 Title page for St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies (1966) | |
| Author | John Bellairs |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Marilyn Fitschen |
| Cover artist | Marilyn Fitschen |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers |
Publication date | 1966 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 123 pp |
St. Fidgeta & Other Parodies, a mostly uncategorizable spoof of 1960s Catholicism, was the first published work by John Bellairs. The original St. Fidgeta article first appeared in the Chicago-based Catholic magazine, the Critic. It describes the putative life of fictional Catholic saint St. Fidgeta ("Quieter of the giggly / Steadier of the wiggly"), a seven year-old martyr and the patroness of unmanageable children. A subsequent book appeared with eleven other vignettes that offered sardonic comment on the Vatican II era[citation needed]. Long out of print, St. Fidgeta was re-released in the 2009 anthology, Magic Mirrors, published by the New England Science Fiction Association press.
The work includes the following: "I would like to thank my friends, Dale and Marilyn Fitschen, for all their help. They suffered through endless readings from the Urtext and gave me many suggestions and ideas. I would also like to thank my friend Bernard Kent Markwell, to whom St. Fidgeta first appeared on a rainy day in front of the Oriental Institute in Chicago. He was struck to the ground by the vision, and after he had rolled about for a bit, he got up and told me what he had seen. He also gave me many ideas: In fact, if you do not like some part of this book, you may attribute it to him."