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by Jack Kurtz

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Maria Fe Burroughs and her husband William Burroughs were the first in line to pray for a miracle at the small, mission style Catholic church in a working class neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona. They weren't the only ones praying for a miracle on this chilly December evening. More than 800 people gathered in the church, most hoping to touch the Reliquary of St. Therese, a few willing to settle for simply seeing the small wooden box bearing several bones of a long dead Catholic saint.

William Burroughs, 62, was hunched over in his wheelchair, his body at war with itself. Maria, his wife, spoke for him, when she explained that her husband has been battling Parkinson's Disease for some 20 years. And it was their faith in St. Therese of Lisieux that gave them the courage to battle on against the debilitating disease.

St. Therese of Lisieux was born Therese Martin in Alencon, France in 1873. She entered the Lisieux Carmel convent at the age of 15. Her intention was to become a Carmelite nun and travel to French Indochina (Vietnam) to spread the word of God.

Therese was not able to journey to Indochina. She spent her years in the convent in quiet contemplation. Studying and writing, Therese developed a simple faith based on the spirituality of childhood - a bold and confident trust in God. The spirituality of her "little way" was not about extraordinary things - but rather doing the simple things of life well and with extraordinary love.

Therese died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. Most saints in the Catholic church have achieved some measure of renown for having committed a "great act," a certifiable and unexplainable miracle. Therese is a notable exception to this. She committed no great acts. No miracles can be traced to her. Just a simple, consuming, belief in God and all things holy.

It is this all consuming belief that makes St. Therese special to many Catholics. On the centenary of her death in 1997, her Reliquary began a worldwide tour. It came to the US in October of 1999.

The Miami Herald reported that during its stop in the Miami area more than 100,000 people made pilgrimages to view and touch the Reliquary, an ornate wooden vessel encased in plexiglass. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, more than 12,000 people waited to view the Reliquary during a three hour stop in Northern New Mexico.

The Reliquary wound its way to Tucson, Arizona in late December, where the Burroughs were the first to touch it. More than 800 people crowded into the church to greet Reliquary on Friday night. After a full mass honoring the Saint, people stood in line for up to an hour to touch the Reliquary. The church was open all night and people quietly filed in and out of the church after praying and touching the Reliquary.

The next Saturday morning, the Reliquary was taken to Douglas, Arizona, a tiny town on the US/Mexico border in the southeastern corner of Arizona. There wasn't a church large enough to accommodate the expected crowds in Douglas, so a special mass was held for the Reliquary on the school's football field. Maria Fe Burroughs and her husband William Burroughs were among the 1,500 people from across Arizona, Southern New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico attended the evening service.

After spending Saturday night in Douglas, the Reliquary returned to Tucson Sunday, where thousands of people greeted it. On Monday, the Reliquary was brought to a Catholic church in Phoenix, where, again, thousands of people, including Maria Fe and William Burroughs, waited to venerate the Saint's vessel.

The Reliquary left the Phoenix area for California on Thursday. In California, it concluded its tour of the US mainland before journeying onto Hawaii and then Asia.

These photos of the Reliquary were made with my Contax G2 and the 28mm, 45mm and 90mm lenses. Most of the photos were made with the 28 followed by the 45. I only made a few of the photos with the 90. The film was Ektachrome 100SW, except in Phoenix, where I used Kodak Ektapress. The flash, when I used one, was a Vivitar 2800.

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