Several weeks ago we found out that the legendary Edith Piaf was baptized in our humble, faux-Gothic, John-the-Baptist-adoring Belleville parish! Yes, Edith the Sparrow, born and reared in a brothel but blessed with belief — or so Père Boyardee has been insisting – might have pewed in the front row like me on Sunday. Mais c’est extraordinaire, non?
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of her death, a giant screen was set up in front of the church last Thursday to broadcast a Mega Mass officiated by Monseigneur de Dinechin, a RC big-wig who gets to strut in hot pink gowns and wave a pastoral crook like Marie Antoinette. The mass was the culmination of a solemn cortege starting in Père Lachaise cemetery at the songstress’s tomb and winding its way through the 20th and 19th arrondissements. I missed the event because I was too busy trying to plump up the raisins in my pilaf, but I’ve heard all went to plan and – so it is rumoured — the mega screening of the mega mass brought at least one convert into the fold, a heathen from the SFR boutique across the street. It’s been whispered his name is Hugh. I’ll try to get the scoop for next week.
Surely all this Piaf fanfare got stoked on the strength of Catholic guilt. Edith was denied the RC funeral she expected because the Padres-That-Were deemed her lifestyle and bawdy origins unworthy of the sacrament. Let us hope the procession and Mega Mass in her honour have made amends for that final crime against The Sparrow; if so, I believe we have Pere Boyardee to thank for it.
Today in his homily Père told us Piaf was cured of blindness as a child thanks to three well-intentioned whores who saved their pennies to take her to the tomb of St Teresa of Lisieux. Her sight recovered miraculously thanks to Teresa’s mysterious intercession and from that day on Edith served the saint with intense devotion, placing a portrait of her to the right of the stage whenever she performed and dedicating every concert to her.
(I’ve already posted this photo of St. Teresa but just have to do it again. It’s deliciously derelict in a way that helps us ponder the Piaf-Lisieux connection)
St Teresa of Lisieux is undoubtedly the most popular saint among French Catholics, and even prostitutes, acrobats, drugged out pop stars, wilted daisies etc. feel they can mosey up to her love. She is known to have said “I wanted to find an elevator to would raise me to Jesus.” How prescient! Some sixty years later in Roald Dahl’s classic, Willy Wonka invented just that, only his Jesus was chocolate coated.
The human heart is a mystery, my friends; all we can say about Edith’s is it hitched on to Teresa’s for dear life. We all need a spiritual friend or two to stay the course, do we not? No one wants to be a stranger in the province of Joy. Certainly Edith was not.
And now, La vie en rose…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzeLynj1GYM