December 13, 2020

Dear St. Martin of Tours Family,

Christ the Worrier became a popular devotion in Lithuania, where the figure is called Rupintojelis (roo-pinto-YAY-lis). Lithuanians relate the figure to their own suffering as a people, having endured persecution under the Soviet regime and mass deportations to Siberian gulags where about 60 percent of the 130,000 Lithuanian deportees died or were never allowed to return to their homes.

Christ the Worrier is a devotion that reminds us how God identifies with our suffering. As he sits and worries, he contemplates the fears and the sufferings which accompany us during times of uncertainty.

A photograph of this beautiful statue of Christ the Worrier was given to me by my friend, Sister Stephen Marie Barney, who is a member of the religious order of the Sisters of Jesus Christ Crucified and the Sorrowful Mother.

Pray, hope, and don’t worry….