Celebrating Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the "Cure D'Ars"

Celebrating our Relic of

Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney

on his Feast Day!

The way we came to possess an actual relic from Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney ( The "Cure D'Ars" or "Priest of the town of Ars") is a fun tale to tell today since August 4th is his Feast Day on the Catholic Calendar. We have a beautiful Saint JMBV medal that is actually more of a locket than a medal and inside the locket is a piece of Saint JMBV's robe under glass. It is a great treasure and we have kept quiet about how we discovered it, that is, until now. ...

Since 1987, when I first began hunting for Saint medals, I have been to many cities, states and countries looking for unique Saint medals. Naturally, Rome, Italy, is the best place to go to find Saint medals since the Vatican is located there. I love going to Rome and hunting for medals and am planning to go again this fall. But last year I came up with yet another brilliant idea, a "sure-fire" plan to unearth many different Saint medals to add to the http://www.saintsforsinners.com/ collection. The plan failed miserably, as many of my plans (some might call them "schemes" but let's not go there today...) often do in the end, but finding the relic from Saint JMBV was a fantastic consolation prize! So, like always, things worked out perfectly in the end.

After having been Saint medal hunting in Rome several times, I concluded there must be other great places to find Saint medals and that's what led me to France. The Vatican was located in Avignon, France, during the 13th Century so it seemed quite logical that a trip to Avignon would yield lots of great new Saints medals to paint and write stories about. So, a trip to Southern France was scheduled. I was very excited about collecting a cache of Saints to add to my collection and could not wait to get to Avignon.... We stayed in Provence, in a little town called Loumarin, which is south of Avignon. I wish I had paid more attention during the journey but because I was so obsessed with Avignon and finding Saint medals the towns we visited are vague in memory.

The drive to Avignon took us throughout Provence and when we finally arrived I could hardly wait to start collecting medals. Before we got to the former Vatican, I started going into small shops to sort of get an advanced peek at the medals I would be finding. It was funny that the first store I went into did not have any medals but I was undeterred. The second store did not have any Saint medals either but that was fine because there were many other quaint shops and we had not even gotten to the ruins from the 13th Century Vatican. Ruins.

Ruins. Hmmmm. Ruins. A smart person would have probably paid attention to the word ruins. Avignon is a city of ruins. The people of Avignon do not celebrate religion or religious icons like the people of Rome. If you're looking for feudal Lord figurines, swords, and masks, Avignon is the place to go. If you're looking for religious iconography, trust me on this: you'll be sorely disappointed. Throughout the city of Avignon and inside the ruins of the Papacy I did not find one single, solitary Saint medal. Zip. Nada. None. There were a few crosses here and there and one store had a handful of Rosaries for sale but I could not find one Saint medal. My "brilliant" plan to add different Saints from Avignon was a complete, utter, total failure. You live, and you learn.

The region of Provence is beautiful. The little towns are set apart in locations that make it possible to visit 2 or 3 or 4 little cities in a day and each has its own unique charm. But the town I loved best was Saint Remy and it's not because of its name. After our trip to Avignon we decided to do "day trips" and try and visit the towns on the days when they held their outdoor markets. Since looking for Saint medals had not worked out too well, looking for things to decorate our house that was being rebuilt after the flood seemed like a good plan and a welcome diversion. We found great fabric for curtains, and a beautiful lithograph of a street scene that reminded us of a small town we had biked through in Belgium. We found great gifts and we happened upon a street fair that was very much like a yard sale with lots of recycled treasures at bargain prices. Since I have never been able to kick my habit of going to yard sales, I was in a bit of heaven to be at a "yard sale" in St. Remy. It was my favorite part of our trip.

But when you travel with others you have to make some concessions. And since there were lots of places to go and things to see, I was prodded a bit to "hurry up" through the street sale. Left to my own devices I probably would stay at a yard sale or a thrift store all day long, or at least until I found something truly spectacular to my mind. But my friends wanted to move along so when I came across a vendor who was selling some Saint medals, I did not really take the time to sift through what was for sale and instead, bought every medal that was for sale, for a total of about 2 Euros, or 3 dollars.

On our way to the next town, while we were in the car, I took the Saint medals I bought out of my pocket and started looking at the Saints I found. I was very happy to see a round Saint Rocco (Rock, Roch) medal, the patron of dog lovers, as it/he is one of my favorites. I liked the others too and then noticed a medal that was thicker than the rest. It was a Saint Jean Marie Baptiste medal and I recognized him because my dear friend from college, Debbie "Rowdie" Woessner, a schoolteacher in Florida, had ordered his medal package recently and I recalled writing his story for her. As I looked at the medal it started to fall apart! It seemed to, anyway, but then I realized the medal was not a medal and was instead, a locket. Cast on the front of the medal is an image of Jean Vianney and the letters

" SAINT J.B. VIANNEY CURE D'ARS P.P.N."

On its back, the medal has inscribed:

" LINCE AYANT APPARTENU AU SAINT CURE D ARS ."

Inside the Saint medal/locket is a piece of glass and behind it is a small piece of Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney's robe.

It is fitting we tell our story of Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney and his relic today, on his Feast Day. Jean Vianney was a great priest of the town of Ars. He always wanted to be a priest but many felt he did not possess the intellect necessary. He failed in his studies and he failed again. But he never gave up and he eventually succeeded and became the priest he always wanted to be. He is perhaps best known as a most dedicated confessor. He would work tirelessly bringing people back to the Church through Reconciliation. Saint Jean would hear Confession for 12 hours a day in winter and up to 16 hours a day in summer. He brought many back to the Church. http://www.saintsforsinners.com/ will never, ever, come close to measuring up to the successes of Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney but we will keep following his lead, trying to bring people "lapsed" in their Faith, back through the doors of the Church. And "lifting spirits, one saint at a time."

EPILOGUE:

We still have the relic of Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney. It is a treasure. But we also realize that we cannot keep it and that it must be passed on to a group or entity closely associated with the life and vision of Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney so that many can enjoy its beauty. We welcome advice and suggestions about the appropriate placement of this Saint Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney's relic as we know that some things are meant to be shared, not kept.