The reason the Catholic church dedicated May day to the worker saint is to be in solidarity with workers celebrating May day which is the internationally recognized labor day. This country doesn't include labor struggles in the telling of its history, which is probably a red scare legacy and the reason why so many of us are unaware of what May day is. These histories were told and kept alive by labor unions. I know of it because my dad who was a pipe fitter (actual blue collar) was taught that history by his union. Being in the union meant going to school after working as an apprentice during the day. The trade unions mainly educated people in how to do the trade and their destruction directly correlates to the decline in construction quality, but that's a discussion for another time. Nobody I know was taught labor history in public school. I'm not sure what most people believe made America an economic power, but the truth is that there was a labor struggle in this country and the result was a strong middle class. The buying power of this strong middle class drove our economy to be the greatest the world has ever seen. There's nothing a capitalist economy loves more than demand and with nearly every Tom, Richard and Harry with a dollar in their pocket, which they were looking to spend (rich people put money in the bank, poor and middle class people spend it) there was a lot of demand. It's easy to forget these economic principles when quarterly profits are incentivized over long term success.
