REMARKABLE RELIC

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19512, 10 June 1933, Page 11

REMARKABLE RELIC

MARIE ANTOINETTE’S ROSARY When Marie Antoinette, last Queen of France, bequeathed to her daughter one of her most treasured possessions she could not have thought that it would finally go to far-away New Zealand, of which in those days Europe knew practically nothing (says the Taranaki Herald’). This relic, part of which is now in New Plymouth, was the rosary which the unfortunate queen wore right up to the moment of her execution on the guillotine at the hands of the French revolutionaries in 1793. Marie Antoinette is known to have been a very devout woman, who believed strongly in the power of prayer. After she and her daughter were imprisoned it was related that the rosary was in her hands day and night. She left it to her daughter, but wore it on her last earthly journey, and gave instructions that it should be given to the daughter subsequently. This daughter was later placed in the charge of a baron and his wife, who were sorry for her and treated her kindly. She, too, loved the rosary and used it continuously. Before the revolution, an Austrian prince had fallen deeply in love with the princess, and later, hearing where she was held captive, went in search of her. The baron, out of his kindness of heart, winked at their attachment, and eventually the prince brought about her escape, and they crossed the border into Austria, where they were married. The rosary was always the daughter’s most cherished possession, and on her death she left it to her eldest daughter. From then it has always been left to the oldest daughter until the sequence stopped, in quite recent times. There were then three people with claims upon the rosary, and finally it was divided one of the three receiving the cross that was attached to it and the other two half qf the string of beads each. The beads are of brown agate, a rare stone. They are about the size of peas, and are held together by very delicately-fashioned gold clasps at each end. There are thirty-eight on the portion of the rosary which is in New Plymouth, and it is a relic that many people would be very proud to have.