A Forgotten Saint

This is Sainte Tulle, patron saint of Cucuron, a tiny village nestled deep in Provence. She reigns over l'eglise Notre-Dame-de-Beaulieu, the church of our Lady of the beautiful place. According to legend, Sainte Tulle protected the village from the plague of 1720; according to Catholic Online, she doesn't exist as a saint. Forgotten by the world, Ste. Tulle is remembered only by a handful of people who owe the existence of their village to her divine intercession. Tonight's homily referenced another saint, also forgotten. Elizabeth challenged us with these verses from Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 which say, in part..."and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles." Have you ever heard of Matthias? Me neither. I had a moment of guilt, maybe I slept through that Sunday School lesson? But then I noticed that no one else in the congregation knew who Matthias was either. He replaced Judas as the twelfth apostle, yet he is never mentioned again in the New Testament and most Christians have never heard of him. Like Ste. Tulle, his name lies moldering in the ancient history of the church. Does that make him unimportant though? Absolutely not. As Elizabeth explained, he touched lives with his ministry of the Good News of Christ just as Ste. Tulle touched the lives of the villagers of Cucuron. There may well be people alive today who are Christians because of each of these forgotten saints. And Elizabeth's point was this: each of us touches others with our ministry of the Good News. An act of loving-kindness, a moment of forgiveness, a smile of welcome, a simple "I'll remember you in my prayers" may be the brief spark of God's grace that turns a life around or opens a heart to God. No one will remember, no one may even know, but God does. He works through all of us 'forgotten saints' to spread love in His world.