A Made-Up Saint Sends A Message

Of Healing From Heart To Heart

By Nancy K. Crevier

She does not find what she does, whether it is the creation of art or volunteering, to be random acts of kindness, but rather an extension of connectedness that she feels to others. So for Barbara Hawley, a West Virginia artist, to reach across the miles to a woman in Connecticut whom she had never met does not seem out of the ordinary. Nor does it seem extraordinary for her to breathe artistic life into a vague concept such as St Echinacea.

St Echinacea will not be found in any theological books, nor does her visage adorn medals sold in Christian bookstores. She is the creation of twin sisters Liz Arneth of Newtown and Patsy Thurber of Coventry, who determined one day this fall the need for an ecumenical saint to watch over Ms Thurber, who has undergone one heart ablation for atrial fibrillation and who was expected to undergo another procedure in late November. Because the flower echinacea is known for its healing properties, the women felt that it was a fitting moniker for the spirit they had conjured up.

For Marty LaMarche, a graphic artist from Newtown, the miles were fewer from one side of Connecticut to the other, but for her, too, to connect as a healing medium through means of her art did not feel remarkable. When Ms LaMarche first heard about Patsy Thurber’s illness from her longtime friend Liz Arneth, before Ms Thurber’s first heart procedure, she recognized that the sisters needed an expression of their great love.

“Liz has a large reservoir of friends here in Newtown and is a reservoir of love herself,” said Ms LaMarche. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if I could create something that would express that reservoir of love?’”

The result was a painting that “indicates the spirituality at the core of our essence,” said Ms LaMarche. At the center of the painting is a golden circle that represents energy. Radiating out from it and channeling healing energy into the universe are four hearts, stationed like points on a compass. The hearts, like Ms Thurber’s heart, are not whole. Cracks run across each, symbolic of hearts that need healing. “But the energy for healing borne of love is within each heart,” explained Ms LaMarche. She gave the painting to Ms Thurber, whom she knew through Liz Arneth and with whom she had taken painting classes, hoping it would serve as a tangible sign of the strength that lies within.

She was not surprised when Ms Arneth told her about St Echinacea. She understood immediately what the twin sisters gained from the metaphorical spirit.

 “I think that St Echinacea is a clearing house for people’s intentions, wherever they want their intentions to go. She is a thinly veiled, nondenominational entity,” is Ms LaMarche’s opinion.

It is less than six degrees of separation that connects St Echinacea from Connecticut to West Virginia. Shortly after being introduced to the idea of St Echinacea, Ms LaMarche traveled to visit her friend in West Virginia, Barbara Hawley, and shared with her the tale of St Echinacea.

 “Let’s talk about connecting,” said Ms Hawley in a recent interview. “I met Marty at a [Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research] conference in Philadelphia in June 2005, and immediately made a connection with her.” In meeting Ms LaMarche’s friends, including Liz Arneth, later that year, she again felt a warmth and acceptance.

“Was I a stranger?” asked Ms Hawley. “Yes and no. I knew Marty. I liked and trusted her. I met Liz. I liked her and trusted her. So I extended my compassion to Patsy and used my talents to send a message of healing. Patsy didn’t seem like a stranger to me.”

Something about the situation “captured my imagination,” Ms Hawley said, and the vision of St Echinacea came to fruition.

The message sent to Ms Thurber was the culmination of artwork centered on the heart and the healing of the heart that Ms Hawley and Ms LaMarche focused on in West Virginia. “I express my spirituality through my art,” said Ms Hawley. She knew from her personal experience with cancer that art could serve a healing purpose.

Meanwhile, in eastern Connecticut, Ms Thurber had no idea how much love and healing energy was being sent her way. “Then Liz called and kept saying, ‘We have to get together, we have to get together.’ When she did come out to Coventry, she got out of the car with a big Cheshire Cat grin on her face and pulled out the collage.”

The collage is a 16-by-20-inch piece by Barbara Hawley depicting St Echinacea. It is a collection of images from many famous works of art woven into a theme of twins, love, strength and healing that surround the central figure, a serene Byzantine beauty. Humorous elements, such as the fluff of Barbie hair that poufs out from beneath St Echinacea’s crown and a pair of delicious cookies favored by the twin sisters are captured in the collage. Angels, doves and flowers form a fantastical tapestry of color and texture spilling from St Echinacea’s hands and heart.

The energy did not stop with just the collage, though. Ms LaMarche designed a cover for a handmade journal, and Ms Hawley added a beaded book thong. Ms Hawley also designed a series of cards for Ms Thurber, truly from the heart.

Each of the two- by three-inch cards carries a representation of the heart drawn by Ms Hawley in shades of blues and reds. Each heart card is framed by a different heartfelt meditation, including: “A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton; “I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out.” —II Esdras 14:15; “Great thoughts come from the heart.” —Luede Clapeirs. One of the cards is a tiny reproduction of the St Echinacea collage, and on the back is printed a special meditation.

St Echinacea

She is the saint of

Peaceful healing.

“Let go of time,” she said,

“listen, look —

lean into the changes,

lean back into the pillow —

rest, relax, renew.

Your body will heal.

Breathe in the blessings of God

And be nourished

By His spirit.”

For Patsy

With love,

Barbara Hawley, 2006

To say she was flabbergasted by the gifts would be an understatement, said Ms Thurber.

“The outreach of love is amazing. These people go out of their way and the idea that someone out of the blue would do something like this is just amazing,” she said.

She has passed on a few of the cards to others who are ill or undergoing surgery. “People are so pleased to receive them.”

St Echinacea has become a wellspring of strength for Ms Thurber. “She may not be alive in one respect,” she said of the fictional saint, “but she is alive in other ways.”

“Liz made an opening in her love and the manifestation of St Echinacea flowed out,” said Ms LaMarche. It flowed like a river of life across Newtown, across Connecticut, across the mid-Atlantic state, across West Virginia. It flowed out of Ms Arneth, and out of Ms LaMarche. It flowed out of Ms Hawley and has flowed to Ms Thurber, where the artists hope the radiant energy will deliver its strength and continue to flow onward from there.

For Ms Hawley and for Ms LaMarche, it is not that they were able to delve within themselves to empower another that is so mysterious. Rather, asks Ms Hawley, “Why is my gift to Patsy so rare?”

As the story goes to press, The Bee has been informed that Ms Thurber’s doctors have decided she does not presently need the second heart ablation and will continue on medication to control her condition.