Alix Le Clerc was a partygirl done good
Today, the Tour de France passed her resting place in Nancy.
Over three weeks and 21 stages, while some 200 cyclists compete in the Tour de France, I’m researching saints with connections to the racers’ route. 🚴♂️💨
The finish line of today’s Stage 4 was in Nancy, the final resting place of Alix Le Clerc. She had been buried there 400 years ago in a lead coffin, but it went missing during the French Revolution after reign-of-terrorists demolished the monastery and school she founded. Alix, who had been known as something of a frivolous partier until she fell ill and converted to Christianity at the age of 20, had devoted her adult life to the education of girls — and that’s who would ultimately revive her memory. In the 1950s, a group of children rediscovered her coffin while digging in their Catholic school’s basement.