Editors note: So of course I started this Tour de France series right before my true love gave birth to our son. (There’s a pic of him at the end, if you’d like to see. Also seems like a good time to remind you that there is a totally voluntary paid option to this newsletter, heh, but also seriously, heh, heh.) To make up for lost time, I’ve prepared a run-down of what I’ve missed these last few days— the race is nearly halfway over!
Odile
Stage 5 passed by the 7th c. home to Odile, patron saint of Alsace. Born blind, she was rejected by her wealthy father and sent to live among peasants until age 12, when she entered a monastery. As soon as she was baptized there, her vision came to her. News got to her brother, and he excitedly went to bring her home, which enraged their father so much he killed the son. Thankfully, Odile brought him back to life.
Amarin
Stage 6 quite nearly visited the village of Saint-Amarin, which rose up in the 7th century around the cell of a pious hermit named Amarin, who was murdered by robbers. It looks almost insultingly peaceful.
Marie-Anne Françoise Brideau
Stage 7 concluded in Belfort, birthplace to Marie-Anne Françoise Brideau, one of the sixteen Martyrs of Compiègne who were massacred during the French Revolution. Lined up on the steps to the guillotine, simply for being nuns, these 16 women sang hymns together, each sister continuing until she was beheaded, so there were 15 voices, then 14, and so on… just one, then none.
Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney
The mountains of Stage 8 contain a shrine to Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, a 19th century priest so popular that he was said to spend up to 16 hours a day in confession, tending to 20,000 pilgrims in a year to his tiny mountain town of only 260. It was a lot — he ran away four times, actually, but he always came back.
Marcellin Champagnat
Stage 9 wrapped up in St. Etienne, in the Loire Valley, birthplace of Marcellin Champagnat, who was inspired to build religious schools for the poor after giving the final rites to a dying boy who knew nothing of prayer. (Particularly charming was his decision for the schools to accommodate the planting and harvesting schedules of farming families. He was also apparently comically handsome.)
Foy
And finally, Stage 10 passes the shrine of Saint Foy, a 3rd c. virgin martyr who was tortured to death with a red-hot brazier, yet who lived on in the area through a series of holy pranks. For example, to bring today’s series full-circle, she was known to take away the eyesight of Christians who had become arrogant.
(Not a saint just cute)
As promised, here’s my boy :)