Many a tweet recalled a Jan. 26, 1999, visit the pontiff paid to St. Louis and just how comfortable he looked holding a hockey stick given to him by young people gathered for a rally at the arena that is home to the Blues, then called the Kiel Center.

The Pope also received a special jersey in the Blues’ colours — bearing the name “John Paul II’’ and the number “1.’’

When the Blues headed to the Stanley Cup final, Catholics of the Archdiocese of St. Louis were praying hard for their team, said a May 23 editorial in the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper.

“Our city has caught Blues fever with fervour,” it said. “Even Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, not a native of St. Louis but no stranger to hockey as a Minnesota native, exclaimed at the end of his May 22 State of the Archdiocese address to employees: ‘Go Blues!’

“Many people had given up on the Blues, who in January were the worst team in the NHL,” the editorial noted. “It’s a lesson in perseverance and never giving up. It’s a lesson that we certainly could apply to our lives, and especially our faith. There’s always hope. For Catholics, that hope lies in Jesus. And, for #CatholicSTL, in the Blues, too.”