Excerpt, "Saints", from my new novel, "A Striking Woman."

 This excerpt from A Striking Woman has been published as a short story in the anthology, Where the Winds Blow, Polar Expressions, 2022.

"Saints" 

from A Striking Woman

a novel by Ruth Latta

    When Jacqueline was eight, her teacher, Sister St. James, assigned each child to prepare a class presentation on a favourite saint. Jacqueline’s first choice was Jeanne d’Arc, who had been canonized in 1920, just seven years earlier. Jeanne, a farm girl in the 1400s, heard voices from heaven telling her to help the crown prince, the dauphin, kick the English occupying army out of France. When she arrived on her farm horse to see the prince, his nobles scoffed at the idea that a young country girl could lead troops into battle. The dauphin, though, was impressed with her and let her lead an army to free the city of Orleans. Jeanne won several victories, so that the dauphin could get to Reims to be anointed king. Then she was captured by traitors who handed her over to the English. She was found guilty of witchcraft and burned at the stake. 

    So many little girls chose Jeanne d’Arc as their subject that Sister assigned Jeanne to the one who’d claimed her first and pointed the other children in different directions. For a while, Jacqueline wavered between Ste. Catherine, whose feast day, November 25th, signalled the onset of winter, and Ste. Claire, who, like St. Francis of Assisi, had loved animals and helped the poor. 

    Were there any saints here in Montréal? Maman said that Zoe, their household helper, was a saint for putting up with Jacqueline’s endless questions and demands for stories. Jacqueline loved Zoe, who knit mittens for her high-spirited gang of younger brothers and sisters back home and told amusing tales about them. On Zoe’s last holiday back in Meadowvale, she’d gone out walking out with a boy named Damien who worked in the cotton mill. 

    “You have a sweetheart like that girl Madame Bolduc sings about!” Jacqueline exclaimed. 

Zoe blushed. After some thought, Jacqueline decided that Zoe probably wouldn’t qualify as a saint because she hadn’t performed three miracles or faced death for her faith. After more research in the library, she finally found a saint whose story was dramatic and gripping. In fact, his fate was downright horrible! But, as her grandfather had said, people enjoyed a scary story. It made them count their blessings. 

    On the appointed day, she stood before the class and began, “My favourite saint is St. Lawrence, because he cared for the poor and never gave in to those who persecuted him. Also because our St. Lawrence River is named after him.

    St. Lawrence’s three miracles were appearances he’d made on Earth after his death. In life, he’d been a deacon of Rome who lived in AD 200 before Christianity was accepted by the Roman emperors. A deacon’s role was to serve the sick and poor, and St. Lawrence was beloved for doing it well. Then Emperor Valerian decided to stamp out the Christians, and St. Lawrence was hauled before a judge and ordered to hand over the Church’s treasures within three days. 

    Lawrence went home and hid the Church’s sacred scrolls. Next, he opened the Church’s strong boxes and distributed the money to the poor. Then he gathered together a crowd of the destitute and disabled and took them with him to the judge.

     “These people are the true treasures of the Church," he said. 

    “The judge sentenced St. Lawrence to death, and in a very cruel way,” Jacqueline told her classmates. “He was forced to lie down on a grill overtop a pit of burning coals and was then cooked alive. The pain must have been agonizing, but St. Lawrence kept calm. Defiant to the end, he shouted at his torturers, ‘I’m well cooked on this side, so turn me over.’” 

    The children gasped as Jacqueline held up a picture of St. Lawrence being barbecued. 

    “St. Lawrence is the patron saint of a several trades,” she concluded. “He’s the patron saint of librarians, because he hid the Church’s sacred scrolls. He’s also the patron saint of comedians—and of cooks.” 

    Everyone looked stunned. The nun, who had pressed a finger to her upper lip throughout Jacqueline’s speech, managed to say, “Very good, Jacqueline.” Then she bowed her head, and her shoulders shook with emotion. Jacqueline curtseyed to the applause and returned to her desk. What an amazing feeling to have the rapt attention of an audience! 

    She did not know, of course, how often later in life she would have to summon up the courage and sense of humour of St. Lawrence.