St Therese Does a 'Johnny Cash'

St Therese of Lisieux is stopping off on her UK tour to do a reliquary gig at HMP Wormwood Scrubs

Courtesy of The Guardian

For inmates at London's Wormwood Scrubs prison praying for redemption, help may soon be at hand from "the greatest saint of modern times".

Relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, a French Carmelite nun, are to be displayed in the jail's Victorian chapel as part of the relics' first tour of England and Wales. The tour, from 16 September to 16 October, also takes in York Minster as well as cathedrals in Liverpool, Salford, Leeds and Birmingham.

An elaborate casket containing the bones of the Roman Catholic saint will be transported to the prison, home to 1,300 category B male prisoners, 300 of whom are Catholic. The venue had been chosen because of the saint's special affinity with sinners and "those on the edge", said Canon John Udris, a member of the tour's planning committee.

The relics will be placed in the Church of England chapel, a Grade II listed building, and more spacious than the Catholic chapel. For more than three hours, prisoners will be able to file past the reliquary, the container of the relics, and kiss it as they pray.

St Thérèse, who died in 1897 from tuberculosis at the age of 24, is known as the Little Flower of Jesus. The Basilica of St Thérèse, in her home town of Lisieux, attracts two million visitors a year, making it the second most popular pilgrimage site in France after Lourdes.

In her autobiography, she recounted that when she was a teenager, she prayed for the conversion of Henri Pranzini, a triple murderer who refused to confess, and asked God for a sign he had repented.

The next day, she read in a newspaper that, just as the guillotine was about to drop, he snatched a crucifix from a priest and kissed the five wounds of Christ three times. "I had been given my sign and it was typical of the graces Jesus had given me to make me eager to pray for sinners," she wrote.

Some biographies have claimed Edith Piaf, the French singer, was cured of blindness as a seven-year-old after visiting the saint's grave. However, a visit of the relics to Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to avert war failed to have the desired effect.They have toured 40 countries – bringing New York's Fifth Avenue to a standstill in 1999 and attracting more people in Ireland in 2001 than turned out to see Pope John Paul II in 1979.

As the patron saint of aviators, some of her relics are to be taken into space in 2011 by the US astronaut Ronald Garan. She is also patron saint of florists, illness, missions and Russia, although Russia does not recognise her status.

"One of her characteristics was to break down walls," said Canon Udris, the dean of Northampton Cathedral. Staff at Wormwood Scrubs will be anxious to avoid a too literal an interpretation of that trait. A spokesperson for HMP

Wormwood Scrubs said: "We can confirm that the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux will visit HMP Wormwood Scrubs on 12 October. We are very much looking forward this special occasion." The jail has previously hosted a visit by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Marvellous stuff...