A STORE FOR NOTIONS LEADS TO CATHOLIC INVENTIVITY AND
A MAJOR RELIC
Having lunch at this restaurant...
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| Across the street from the Paris 360 Music Factory (more later) |
I noticed a shop with unusual announcements...
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| "Students, 50 % reduction on your alterations;" "Religious clothing..." |
La Grande Mercerie de Château Rouge
31 bis rue Myrha
...and remembered that I had to replace a snap.
# # #
"You can't sew it by hand. Let Pierre replace it," said the lady who greeted me.
Later I learned that this was a family enterprise. The young man was her son and the distinguished man behind the counter, her husband:
Snaps of different colors. Few stores bother with such minimal mending (one euro), still less in different colors.
While waiting for the reparation I noticed Christian images, surprising in that Muslim neighborhood...
...which led to talking to the Cameroonian owner, Marie-Isabel Djob * Ngena-Nkondo.
* "Child of God"
She said that she had been the cantor at the Saint Denys Basilica*
which shelters the tunic Jesus wore on his way to Calvary * *
*In Argenteuil, a commune north of Paris, site of an important medieval abbey.
* *For its story, The Seamless robe of Jesus, Wikipedia; for an account that is more complete, the article in French.
Summary
The weaving is that of the 5th or 6th century, but may be older: The lack of examples prevents comparaison. But the tears in the tunic correspond to carrying a heavy object on the shoulders and DNA tests show the same blood group as that on the two other relics believed to be of Jesus.
In 2016, its exceptional display drew at least 200,000 pilgrims :
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| Both images, the Basilica web site |
Left, Charlemagne brings the tunic to his daughter, the abbess of Argenteuil;
Right, the tunic as shown in 2016.
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Argenteuil: The Display of the Sainted Tunic of Christ / KTOTV YouTube (in French) |
At that time Marie-Isabelle had this and other Catholic prints made
in the Ivory Coast:
The fleur de lys, symbol of the French monarchy, here evokes the tie between Catholicism and France.
Displaying these prints shows the tolerance
of this largely Muslim neighborhood.
Coming from a Protestant background,
I knew nothing of the relic.
It took this store to almost miraculously uncover
an important part of Catholicism
and so of the Western past.
# # #
Immigrants work:
Marie-Isabel may sleep in the store.
* * *
Next,
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