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Published: August 2nd 2009
Saint Wendelin
He was the son of a King & Queen of ScotlandWikipedia tells me that Saint Wendelin is the patron saint of country people and herdsmen and is venerated in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (and obviously Alsace). In artworks he is depicted as a youth, or as a bearded man, with a shepherd's bag and a book in one hand and a shepherd's crook in the other; about him feed lambs, cattle, and swine, while a crown and a shield are placed at his feet.
I read in a book about Catholic Saints, that because of his pious lifestyle he worked the odd miracle relating to good harvests and healthy cattle or other grazing animals. He was also know to be able to transmigrate (as in pick himself and his flock of sheep up and travel inexplicable distances in very short amounts of time. A very handy skill indeed!
I also read, on a website devoted to information about famous Scots, that Wendelin once speared his shepherds crook into the ground of a paddock that had very poor supplies of water. He was able to get a lovely spring of water to spout out from the spot his crook had entered the ground. Now, I have seen a
water diviner at work and it is truly a magical talent so I have no doubt this could have happened.
Oh, Wendelin was also the son of a King and Queen of Scotland, and was born in 554. He spent a lot of his life in the Saar area of Germany. There is a town in that district called Sankt Wendel.
It is very fitting that the Chapel of Saint Wendelin is located in the vines above the village, not far from the forest area, at the foot of the mountains.
What a beautiful day dawned! As far as I could tell the Fête de la St Wendelin celebrated the coming of summer and all the good things that summer brings, plus to thank the Lord for this as well. I noticed in previous years there had been blessings of animals during the ceremonies no doubt due to Saint Wendelin's status as patron of herdsmen.
The program for the day was ... walk to the Chapel of Saint Wendelin on the hill above the village, celebrate Mass and give thanks for all the good things in life, then the procession led back down the hill
to the Church of Saint Gall for more of the ceremony (sorry I am not an expert on all the correct Catholic terms for the proceedings).
At the chapel on the hill it was really warm, luckily Lorenza brought along our umbrellas because they really came in handy as sun shades. In fact it was so warm that during the Mass one poor fellow fainted. As I already stated, the main theme of the Mass was to give thanks to all that is good in nature. This was certainly a great location to do this in, with the chapel surrounded by vines.
Once the religious ceremonies were over, Lorenza and I proceeded to the new community hall, adjacent to the school. This had been built since our last visit and certainly extended the amenities for the community. Food and drinks were on sale, the local band was playing and everyone was enjoying the brilliant sunshine. Me, I was in need to a glass of wine to settle my nerves because it was getting close to speech time! Beatrice had made a lot of suggestions for what I should include in my speech so I was hoping it would
go well and people would at least understand most of what I said.
Once Myriam, the President of the Friends of the Twisted Steeple introduced me and presented me with two lovely books for my work on the website - it was my turn ... In my wonderful Aussie accent I proceeded to deliver my first (and probably final) speech in French, it went like this ...
As unaccustomed as I am to public speaking - in French! Bonjour à tous et à toutes. Il y a deux ans en discutant avec Myriam j'ai appris qu'un site internet consacré au clocher vrillé avait été créé. Mais en retournant en Australie, le site ne fonctionnait plus. J'ai souhaité aider l'association "des amis du clocher vrillé" à créer un nouveau site internet ce qui contribua à rétablir mes liens familiaux avec cette region ... qui datent d'il y a cent ans.
Mon ancêtre, Daniel B, a été Maire de Colmar et possédait egalement une villa au coeur de village des Trois Epis. J'ai aprris que des familles originaires de Niedermorschwihr ont connu Daniel B, comme les Boxler, les Haffner et les Kuntzmann.
C'est pourquoi je tiens à remercier l'association des amis du clicher vrillé de m'avoir permis d'apporte ma petite contribution. Je vous remercie et vous souhaite à tous une belle fête de la Saint Wendelin. Or something like that!
I was told that everyone understood what I was trying to say and they liked that I made the speech in French rather than English, plus they found my broad Australian accent very amusing. The books I was given are a very lovely gift which I will treasure. It was a pity my petite cousine Caroline missed my speech as she claimed that "I have never hard any french come from your mouth".
Back to the festivities The non religious festivities continued well into the evening, with plenty of singing, talking and lovely people to meet. There was a jazz concert in the church, plus a lot of merriment in the streets. We had such a fun time with people like Rainer, his wife Marita and daughter Jess. Jess was funny because when we first met she was so shy, after all we were speaking either English or French and while she spoke German. But, we soon won her over!
I have posted
lots of photos (plus I am trying to upload some videos), so you get the idea of the festivities.
We will miss you Thanks so much to Beatrice and Jean for such a wonderful day and for all their hospitality while we visited! As I am writing this after the event I have a lump in my throat because I already miss our dear friends so much - it is such a shame we all live so far apart - but it also makes it so much more special when we can visit!
(PS: Whilst my personal philosophical beliefs are linked with Buddhism, I could see why people would identify with and celebrate the virtues of someone like Saint Wendelin. From the brief research I did he seems like he was a very down to earth person, who spent his time engaged in pursuits close to nature and also devoted a lot of his time to meditating. He has something in common with the Buddha, in that they both renounced a life of royal comfort in exchange for their personal beliefs. A good example to people for sure!)
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