Fête of St. Clair 16 July 2002

Fête of St. Clair 16 July 2002 Mallory, Gretchen, John, Annie, Sinclair

From: Sinclair
Subject: Saint_Clair's Fête
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 08:55:08 +0200

In the evening of 16 July, together with other members of this list I once attended the fête and fue (fire) of Saint Clair. It is difficult to explain the emotions of seeing the bones of Clair and his disciple Saint Cynin carried thought the ancient streets and venals of the village of Saint Clair-sur Epte. The village is not in Normandy. A sign at the edge of the village states Ici est où Normandie a commencé. (Here is where Normandy began).

St. Clair's Abode beheading block holy well Church in St. Clair-sur-Epte Mass for St. Clair relics of St. Cirin and St. Clair St. Cirin St. Clair torches departing the church Procession procession down the street torches on the street priest at the holy well acolyte with banner at the well St. Cirin again torches to the block The Fire the crowd fire in the grove bones around the fire fire catches The Crown the crown the crown catches the crown burns the crown smoldering St. Clair's Hut St. Clair's hut en fete St. Clair's altar

As the dying embers slowly faded all that was left was the memory, hidden in the caverns of the mind, of the friendship extended in the small town and the love the French peasants hold for the progenitor of our name. We are here for only the flicking of a eye, each man is allotted only so many heartbeats. Our name lives, well beyond day of our lives in the l'Île de France as thousands of men and women, for over a thousand years have called our name in soft evening air.

Sinclair

From: "John S. Quarterman"

> Now to get the spark burns out of my jacket....

Just think, you could have a great conversation piece with that jacket now. Then someone asks you how you burnt your jacket you can say " Well, I was carrying the 1000 year old bones of a saint and fire rained down on me from the skies"

It was amusing to watch you crab walk on the third go around the fire. It was a great night .

Sinclair's from America, Australia and UK had photo's placed in the local and Paris papers. The Mayor was running around telling everyone about the Sinclair's from distant lands. I recommend the fete to anyone who can make it next year. If the fete date lands on a weekend, the festivities start in the afternoon, but not until 9pm if it falls on a week day.

Annie