A surprise story and I am so grateful for it!
I just love it when I get stories about the new life and home of one of my hoarded items! It feels so good and it's a reminder that although my hoarding habits brought me chaos and quite possibly ill health, I've been able to turn it around and there are many positive outcomes I never thought possible!
Here is the most current story I received in an email:
You asked me to share why I purchased, and explain where this item is headed: I'm a Graphic Designer for a daily newspaper in Maine, and I work with a gentleman who has traveled the world. His wife happens to run a public relations firm. She works with high profile clients around the world (they both travel a great deal), and it is through my connection with her husband that she came to ask me for graphic design assistance. I worked on a project for her, and I got to know her a little bit more on a personal level. She is of Italian descent, and she speaks often of her Italian mother. To thank her for the freelance project she hired me for, I sought a small portable item that she would find personally valuable. Anything chintzy just would not do for someone who is well traveled and has no need for clutter. I received the item today, and I plan to give it to her tomorrow. Thank you for the nice note and especially the origami crane you enclosed. I feel the item will bring good luck to both its bearer and recipient.
I love it's new life as a thought out special thank you gift with a new home in Maine!
Later, I received another email saying, the recipient absolutely loved the medal and was reassured it's in a good home! There's nothing like a story full of happy endings!
I found information on Martin de Porres more than interesting and unfortunately spent less time on St. Raphael, but I have so many religious medals I'm sure St. Raphael will come up again to do more research about him! And yes, I will do a count on my religious medals soon to come to grips on the size my religious artifact hoard.
Saint Martin de Porres was quite amazing and interesting for his time and I had to stop myself from writing everything I found interesting about him and did not have much time for Saint Raphael:
1. Martin de Porres (December 9, 1579 – November 3, 1639) was a lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
2. He was a vegetarian and known for his Dr. Doolittle ways, noted for work on behalf of the poor, establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and abstaining from meat.
Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and an ability to communicate with animals.
3. Bilocation story: Although he never left his native land of Peru. Many people in other countries were cured by him in other countries and when coming to Peru and seeing him, claimed Martin had performed miracles for them.
4. Dr. Doolittle story: The most famous single story connected with Martín had to do with a group of mice that infested the monastery's collection of fine linen robes. Martín resisted the plans of the other monks to lay poison out for the mice.
One day he caught a mouse and said (in the rendering of Angela M. Orsini of San Francisco's Martín de Porres House of Hospitality, one of many institutions and schools in the United States named after the Peruvian healer), "Little brothers, why are you and your companions doing so much harm to the things belonging to the sick? Look; I shall not kill you, but you are to assemble all your friends and lead them to the far end of the garden. Everyday I will bring you food if you leave the wardrobe alone"—
Whereupon Martín lead a Pied Piper-like mouse parade toward a small new den. Both the mice and Martín kept their word, and the closet infestation was solved for good.
5. He did many things for the poor community and for abandoned children. Martin did not eat meat and probably saved more money in doing so. He also begged for alms to procure necessities the convent could not provide. In normal times Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent.
Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen, laundry and infirmary, Martin’s life is said to have reflected extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and a remarkable rapport with animals.
6. Patron of mixed races and racial harmony: the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porres and his mother, a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly part Native American descent, named Ana Velázquez. who was born in Panama.
He had a sister named Juana, born three years later in 1581. After the birth of his sister, the father abandoned the family. Ana Velasquez supported her children by taking in laundry.
He grew up in poverty and, when his mother could not support him, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, and then placed with a barber/surgeon to learn the medical arts. He spent hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased as he grew older.
By law in Peru, descendants of Africans and Indians were barred from becoming full members of religious orders. The only route open to Martin was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Friary in Lima to accept him as a "donado", a layman who performed menial tasks in the friary in return for the privilege of wearing the habit and living in the religious community.
At the age of 15 he asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy, and as his duties grew he was promoted to almoner.
Read the rest of life story at wikipedia.
Information about Saint Raphael:
Raphael first appears disguised in human form as the traveling companion of Tobit's son, calling himself "Azarias the son of the great Ananias". During the adventurous course of the journey the archangel's protective influence is shown in many ways including the binding of the demon in the desert of upper Egypt. After the return and the healing of the blindness of Tobit, Azarias makes himself known as "the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" Tobit 12:15. He is often venerated and patronized as Saint Raphael the Archangel.
This medal pictures Saint Raphael standing on a large fish.
Saying Good-bye: My Hoarder Rehab is going quite well and I'm amazed that even under a lot of stress, (more on my stressful experiences in the last two posts here and here) it's still easy to let go of my well loved hoarded items. I am so thankful that letting go and figuring out about my hoarding life style has helped me to change it.
What I've Learned:
1. Simply having less and buying less has helped replace chaos and clutter in both my mind and home and has brought much more peace and satisfaction than I thought possible. I do still have areas to work on, like my washi tape collection that's nearing on hoard and when to know when enough is enough, especially when dealing with art supplies and sale items. Also the music art room is in continual organization mode, but it's slowly and surely getting there.
2. It's such a relief to know that if I keep practicing letting go of one item at a time during a stressful period of my life that maybe next Christmas holiday, which is the worst for me, will be more pleasant and enjoyable!
3. It is so heart felt to get a surprise story from Etsyians who are willing to help me with my Hoarder Rehab! I feel as though I've come a long way from last October and it's from the interaction I have from many who are kind enough to share their stories and support me!
I think Francis Underwood's quote, from House of Cards describes what I feel at the moment so well, "Harmony. It's not about what's lasting or permanent. It's about individual voices coming together for a moment. And that moment lasts the length of a breath."
In my case it's a moment full transaction or a couple of emails, but it's the harmony of the many individual voices that have shared with me that have brought me this far and I am so thankful for everyone's kindness.
Thank you Etsy and all Etysians who have connected with me and supported my Hoarder Rehab.
Thank you US, Russia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Canada, Croatia, India, France, UK, Poland and China for your support of my Hoarder Rehab: The Destiny of Things via VintageToGoEtsy! Click on the links to visit my current hoard!
Related Religious Medal Stories:
1. A Mighty Circular Destiny as Infinity Story: The Destiny of Things XLIII: Saint Christopher medal
3. Mortician Religious Medals: The Destiny of Things, Story XXIII: Notre Dame Lourdes Medals
4. Saint Patrick: Irish Themed Rosary for St. Patty's Day
5. With information on the origins and designer of the Miraculous medal: Hans Vilhelm Hansen's Version of St. Laboure's Miraculous Medal: The Destiny of Things, Story XXXVI
6. Miraculous Medal: Rear View Mirror Religious Medal: The Destiny of Things, Story XXXVIII
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