"It All Starts with Toulouse…"

[Thom Courcelle]

Large board mail art post from Dean, with an emphasis on the history of Toulouse...

"Ne pas enlever cette étiquette." I would NEVER!!!

The reverse side has an aerial view of some of the monastic communities' buildings in Toulouse named after Saint Saturnin (I think), and a split image of the saint himself. Saint Saturnin was the first bishop of Toulouse. He was sent by Pope Fabian around 250 AD to Christianize Gaul after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian communities in the region.

Unfortunately, St. Saturnin's ending was not so pleasant—he was a martyr, after all...

In order to reach his Christian church, Saturninus had to pass in front of the capitol, where there was an altar at which the pagan priests blamed the silence of their oracles on the frequent presence of Saturninus. One day they seized him and upon his resolute refusal to sacrifice to their idols, they condemned him to be tied by his feet to a bull which dragged him about the town until the rope broke. (Mérci à Wikipedia pour le synopsis.)

Poor Saturnin! What a way to go! Dean included a champagne foil cap as part of his collage (see down in the far left corner), which undoubtedly was from the bottle of bubbly used to toast and honor our Toulousian patron...

Thank you, Dean for your vibrant and history-infused mail art! See? Art can teach us something new every day!

[Dean aka Artist in Seine]

Happy it arrived and with a lot of un-cancelled stamps.  Looks like the post office got tired and quit.

Thank you for the blog and the research of the story.  You are correct, the bubbly was to St. Saturnin.  I needed something after hearing the story.

Best Wishes