Like many aspects of American culture during the 1960s, religion, particularly the Catholic Church, was undergoing fundamental changes. In 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council that ushered a sense of reform throughout the church: prayers were no longer said in Latin, the priest no longer faced away from the congregation when performing communion, and an extra effort was made to get closer to Protestant denominations. However by the time Bellairs began composing his early drafts of the original Saint Fidgeta article, Pope John XXIII was gone and his replacement, Pope Paul VI, had been installed and wasn’t as eager with all the change.

And while the end result may have reflected a feeling of disillusionment harbored by other Catholics, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies can actually be quite funny, spoofing everything from saints and prayers to what it’s like to teach at a Catholic college, church architecture, and the goings-on at the Vatican. In fact Bellairs references a handful of notable names associated with the Catholic Church (and politics) from the 1960s to populate his essays, including:

Pope Paul VI (1897-1978; reigned as Pope 1963-1978), who made the first papal visit to the United States on October 4, 1965. The historic 14-hour visit included a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson, addressing crowds at Saint Patrick Cathedral and the United Nations, and then wrapping up with Mass at Yankee Stadium (colloquially dubbed the “Sermon on the Mound”). Bellairs’ meditation on the event came in a series of “notes” discovered in the desk of a New York advertising executive that speculated on some ways to improve and promote subsequent papal visits. The notes are apparently needed for better public relations since on the first visit “[the Holy Father] acted like something you'd carry through the streets in an Italian village festival. Uncooked pizza has more expression [29].” For the record, it is doubtful these “notes” were put to use for John Paul II or Benedict XVI’s visits to the United States.

Xavier Rynne, pseudonym of Francis X. Murphy (1915-2002), whose “Letters from Vatican City” in The New Yorker discussed the happenings during the opening sessions of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. Because the Council's deliberations were supposed to be secret, these behind-the-scenes letters aroused interest in the proceedings for Americans and "put a very human face on a process supposedly guided by the Holy Ghost and a complete mystery to both the laity and much of the Church hierarchy," explains Al Myers. Rynne also covered the papal election that resulted in the accession of Pope Paul VI. Because Vatican II was so revolutionary and far-reaching, Bellairs decided to poke some fun at both the event and Rynne’s gossipy news by introducing the Third Vatican Council in chapter nine, written in the form of a letter by author Nepomuk Prynne. Not only mocking the divulging of too much personal details about some of the wilder activities held during the Council, Vatican III assumes the outcome of its predecessor was so radical that everyone went back to the drawing board to try again a mere two decades later.

William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925–2008), the American conservative author and commentator, who Bellairs suggests would threaten to purchase seats to hang his “Mater Sí-Magistra No” banner. The phrase – based on “¡Cuba sí, Yanqui no!” from the 1959 Cuban revolution – stems from the Mater et Magistra, where the Church described itself as “mother and teacher” of its members. The fictional New York ad man assumes Buckley’s protest heeds Catholics not to follow the teachings of the Church on social policy. Although Buckley’s infamous non-quote was first published in his National Review, the phrase was actually coined by author Garry Wills.

Thomas Merton (1915-68) was a prominent author and social activist who lived at the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Bardstown, Kentucky. Trappists follow the rules set forth for communal living by St. Benedict. His text includes 73 chapters, each focusing on various aspects of monastic life. Chapter 48 of the Rule is interesting – in a study of Bellairs’ text – in that it states “for then are they monks in truth, if they live by the work of their hands.” In accordance with this rule most Trappist monasteries create or produce goods that are in turn sold to provide income for the monastery. To fulfill this requirement, monks at the Abbey of the Genesee in York, New York (an off-shoot from their Trappist brethren in Kentucky) began baking bread for the community back in 1951. To respond to the demand for bread by guests and visitors, a small bakery was added to a new abbey being built; in 1956, a large, modern bakery was set in operation. The bakery, continually upgraded and improved, is still in operation and selling the popular Monk’s Bread.

David Dean Rusk (1909-94) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. As secretary he believed in the use of military action to combat Communism. During the Cuban missile crisis he supported diplomatic efforts. Early in his tenure, he had strong doubts about US intervention in Vietnam, but later his vigorous public defense of US actions in the Vietnam War made him a frequent target of anti-war protests. We’re not sure why Bellairs misspelled the name as Dean Husk, though Charles Bowen suggests "John probably liked the idea of suggesting that he was empty as well as pasty."