Who doesn’t know Saint Rita’s church in Old Nice?
But for those who might not be familiar with this building, also called the Church of the Annunciation, I want to tell you a little story that transcends many absurdly fixed rules in our “Old” World.
Everyone knows Saint Rita, certainly, but who knows Youcef?
It might seem almost supernatural to some, or contradictory to others, but in today’s Old Nice, these two names are intimately and cleverly linked to provide one of the greatest life lessons I have ever come across.
With just a few words, I will try to explain why miracles are not always those mirages that people vainly try to explain?
Youcef, or Youf to those close to him, is one of the children of Old Nice.
One who went through the School of the Castle and then Collège Ségurane.
A “local,” you might say!
Then one day, two paths, which are not ordinarily accustomed to crossing, begin to intertwine.
We are in the 1980s, and Youf, like most of us, is faced with the major problem of that era: Finding a job?
And then one evening, he joins those who fully enter working life having finally secured a solid job.
I have always known Youcef to realize that the coordination of his hands and his brain gave him a head start over many of us in quite a few areas, but I had never imagined this situation which seems so obvious to me today.
So, Youcef enters Saint Rita, and even we post-adolescents undoubtedly received our first, and unforgettable, lesson in tolerance.
Months will pass peacefully and today, decades later, the destinies of these two entities, which were not necessarily meant to meet, are united.
Raised in a Catholic and practicing universe, I have had time to become aware of the definition of a miracle.
And as once said by the creator of the “Minute of Monsieur Cyclopède,” Pierre Desproges, “the day Arabs work in churches, that’s when I’ll believe in miracles.”
Pierrot, you should have seen it!
