On our third day we were most grateful to Peter, our
innkeeper who drove us to St Flour for a small fee. We arrived to find that the tourism office
was closed. We bought our train tickets
for the trip back to Le Puy for the mid-afternoon and then set off to find
information about our sisters. What
better place to ask than at the building with the sign, Institute St
Joseph. This is a school that was
founded by our sisters. One sister
volunteers there now. The lay principal
was very happy to connect us with the sisters and provide guidance on how to
get around and what to see in St Flour.
So happily we set off to meet with Sr. Therese. She kept our backpacks for the morning,
provided wonderful welcome and all the additional advice we needed. She insisted that we come back around 1pm to
meet the other two Sisters of St Joseph in St Flour.
The hike up to the old city was steep. Interestingly, this was the only day that we
three were sore from the hiking- perhaps it’s that we didn’t have our hiking
poles with us. Along the way up the
hill, there are stations of the cross.
We were mindful of the people that we had carried in our hearts as we
ascended to our final destination. As we
entered the Cathedral where we knew the first community of St Joseph had
worshipped, we were overwhelmed. The
time spent there was very powerful.
As we descended into the modern city, we were pensive. Little did we know what lay ahead. As we stopped by to visit with our three St
Flour sisters, we were overwhelmed when they pulled out a piece that I had
written about Sr. Griselda, translated into French. With our limited communications skills, we
learned about these sisters. One had a
relationship with one of the sisters who had worked at the United Nations. As we tried to guess who it was, Sr. Raymond
revealed that this sister, while working in the archives in France, had written
a poem which she had given to Sr. Raymond.
With tears in her eyes, Sr. Griselda shared that Sr. Mary Alban had
given the same poem to her. We then
shared memories of Sr. Mary Alban of Canada who had died during the previous
week.
There were so many ways that we felt the international
connections and the power of our history as Sisters of St Joseph which all started
here in St Flour. We were glad to have
found our way to St Flour.
