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Kevin Rudd - Source: Reuters
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has taken on his arch-rival Tony
Abbott on a very godly question.
Whose saintly namesake is the best.
At a Brisbane dinner to mark St Patrick's Day, attended by both
leaders, Rudd jokingly contrasted his namesake - St Kevin of
Glendalough - with Italy's St Anthony.
It's not known if Mr Abbott was named after St Anthony, but that
did not stop Rudd from his heavenly musings.
St Kevin was a 6th century Irish abbot who gave "long boring
sermons", and steered his monastery through the global financial
crisis of 578.
"He also held back wave after wave of unauthorised people movements
of the latter 6th century," Rudd told the Queensland Irish
Association dinner.
On the other hand, St Anthony was a "seriously multicultural 13th
century type" who changed faiths and is known as the patron saint
of lost things.
"Whether that says something about their namesakes in 21st century
Australian politics, I'll leave you to judge," Rudd
concluded.
The prime minister also celebrated his Irish heritage - his
ancestors emigrated from County Tipperary.
Rudd could not resist bringing politics into his speech, even
though he noted organisers had said there was no place for
it.
"Politics and the Irish go together like leprechauns and rainbows,"
Rudd said.
Abbott is shortly to address the dinner.
