Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #77: Barcelona

Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies that sometimes devolves into a group therapy session.

This week, the new guy Chris brings his first solo choice to the table.  It is the 1994 film Barcelona, by writer/director Whit Stillman. Most of the MotherPodcasters find it funny, but is it laugh out loud funny? Watch and find out.

This is also an important episode because we will be saving goodbye to Mother Podcasters Wojo and Brad for a while. Their schedules are forcing them to take some time off, but don't worry, they square is also there waiting for them!  See you soon!

Here's the podcast on YouTube:

                  

Our Podcast is now available for download on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

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Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
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Check out our other episodes here:



My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.


Learn more about the book, click Here.

Watch the book trailer:

  

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Grave Tale #22: Dr. Maurice Chideckel

I am an avid genealogist. The past is very important to me. I spend a lot of time in cemeteries photographing tombstones to upload on the website FindAGrave.

I enjoy recognizing long dead people by putting memorials to them online. However, every once and a while something grabs me about a specific grave. It could be the name, or the dates or a ceramic photo. In those cases, I feel compelled to dig a little deeper. That's what this series of blogs is about: The tales behind those graves. Some of my subjects will be heroes. Some will be villains. Some will be victims. And some will linger in between, like most of us. However, don't be surprised if the tales are inherently tragic. These are grave tales. They all end in death.

I tried to visit the adjoined Ohr Knesseth Israel Anshe Sfard and Knesseth Israel Anshe Kolk Wolyn cemeteries immediately after they fell victim to appalling, anti-Semitic vandalism. (Read about it herehere and here.) They are among my favorite cemeteries, populated with fascinating people whose lives deserve revisiting. My first couple of attempts were rebuffed by a locked gate. Fortunately, when I finally gained entry, the offensive graffiti had been completely removed. Not a trace of it remained. Additionally, the grounds had been thoroughly cleaned and it appeared that a number of monuments that had previously toppled over had been fixed. I was glad to see that.

While I was walking around, I happened upon the grave of Dr. Maurice Chideckel. I nearly walked by without a second thought. I normally don't consider doctors or clergymen or politicians for this series. They tend to achieve a great deal of honor and respect while still alive. I am more interested in marginal characters who deserve a post-mortem tip of the hat. However, I couldn't resist and looked him up.  He was quite a fascinating guy. Here's what I found:

The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 20 June 1958, Friday:


Dr. Chideckel Dies At 75

     Dr. Maurice Chideckel, 75, who recently completed his fiftieth year of practice in Baltimore, died today at his home at 2225 Linden avenue.
     In addition to wide repute for his general practice, Dr. Chideckel was nationally known as an author of medical books for the laity.
     In the early 1930's, he also contributed articles to The Sunday Sun.
     Dr. Chideckel was born in Vilna, Russia, where he later was ordained a rabbi. He arrived in Baltimore at the age of 16 and took a job as a bookkeeper while studying medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is now part of the University of Maryland.

Also Edited Paper

     During his time, he also edited a Yiddish newspaper, the Baltimore Wegweiser.
     Among the doctor's books were "Strictly Private," an intimate diary of a medical practitioner which created a stir when it was published in 1928; "Fakers, Old and New," published in 1928, and "Behind the Screen," a diary-form volume of hundreds of incidents in a busy professional career.
     In all, Dr. Chideckel wrote fourteen books covering the fields of fiction, medicine and religion.
     During his lengthy, distinguished career, the doctor also wrote for the Roche Review, a medical monthly; Post Graduate Medicine, published by the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., and the Jewish Forum.
     Mild of manner and almost retiring, Dr. Chideckel always minimized his accomplishments. Next to writing, music was his chief avocation, a field in which he said he employed "only a listener's approach."
     Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Mary Chideckel; a son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Morton Chideckel; a daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley M. Klein, all of Baltimore, and five grandchildren.

Wow. He was a jack of all trades: A doctor. A writer. A journalist. A musician. An editor.  I decided I had to learn more about him and his work. I discovered that Dr. Chideckel lived a very newsworthy life. I found far too much about him to relate in this blog, but I will include some highlights. Some of the stories are quite lengthy and I will only include key segments.

Here's the first story I found about him:

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 12 October 1900, Friday:


WANTS MARRIAGE ANNULLED
-----
Maurice Chideckel Says He Was Forced Into It.

     Maurice Chideckel applied in the Circuit Court yesterday, by Ruddell & Smith, attorneys, for the annulment of his marriage with Sarah Chideckel, 257 North High street. The bill of plaint states they were married in 1893 in Russia, but never lived together. It is alleged that force and fraud were used to induce Chideckel to marry, and that immediately after the ceremony he came to this country.
     About the 1st of last June, it is also alleged, Mrs. Chideckel appeared in Baltimore and demanded of her husband that he live with her. He refused, and was arrested for not supporting her. It is alleged that Chideckel was compelled by the magistrate at the Eastern Police Station to enter into an agreement to pay his wife $2.50, but he has since been advised that the marriage is illegal because he was under age at the time, being then only 16 years old. Mrs. Chideckel, it is stated, is nine years older than her husband.

In February of 1902, Maurice and Sarah Chideckel would be granted a limited divorce.  

Don't judge Dr. Chideckel too harshly about his youthful divorce. He would later love very deeply. His wife Hannah is buried beside him. Strangely, there was no death notice in the Sun when she died on 26 March 1944. However, a few months later, he published this memorial:

The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 26 September 1944, Tuesday:

IN MEMORIAM

CHIDECKEL -- In memory of my dear wife, Hannah, who departed this life March 26, 1944.
     My wife, darling, my darling, our destinies were entwined, our problem one.
     Now I am desolate and alone, for life without you is meaningless.
     If you could only break through shadows and come back to me, my sweetheart.
     My fervent hope is that I soon join you in that world that knows no agony, no physical suffering and no mental torture.
HUSBAND MAURICE.

That was true heartache. You have to admire the emotional vulnerability necessary to publish that in a newspaper. It was practically a suicide note! But we're getting a head of ourselves. Now let's step back to 1908 when Mr. Chideckel, before he became a doctor, was given a nearly full page biographical treatment in the newspaper. (This article is heavily condensed.)

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 12 April 1908, Sunday:



A Many-Sided Editor Of A Single-Minded Sheet
-----
Maurice Chideckel Directs The Paper For The
Jewish Colony, In Addition To Other Things.

     There is a weekly paper published in East Baltimore called the Baltimore Guide. It is printed in Yiddish, the common tongue of the Jew in Eastern Europe, and is eagerly read by the newly arrive emigrant....
     The complete editorial staff of the paper, the entire reportorial department, the literary editor, the exchange editor -- all the workmen and supernumeraries of a newspaper office -- are all comprised in one man here -- "The Editor," as he is called -- and if anyone ever deserved the name Mr. Maurice Chideckel, who lives at 1902 Fairmount avenue, surely does.
     He writes the editorial, the biography and the scientific article. He translates the story. He must keep in touch with local affairs of popular interest and Jewish matters the world over. To do this he must read the Baltimore daily papers, the prominent Jewish and Yiddish publications from New York and other cities and a large number of German and Russian exchanges. He also reads all proofs and makes up the paper.
     Mr. Chideckel is a young man -- about 28 or 29 years old. His height is a little over average, but somewhat shortened by the stooping shoulder of the confirmed student. Thick, coarse, black hair is pushed back from a high narrow forehead which bulges out from the heavy, strongly marked eyebrows. His eyes are deep-sunken, and they are frequently veiled with the misty look of the dreamer, though they can flash with spirit and are prone to twinkle with suppressed humor. The high cheek bones, the hollow cheeks, the large full nose and the long, prominent jaw are characteristic of his race and reveal also its inherent power of concentrated determination.


     He was born on a farm in Russia. His parents were in comfortable circumstances, but when he was about three or four years old the ukase was published forbidding Jews to reside outside of town. As only a few days' notice to vacate their land was given, there was no chance to sell the property, and the Chideckel family, with thousands of others, had to seek a new home, taking with it only what it could carry of portable goods. It settled in a small nearby town of some 7,000 to 8,000 inhabitants, widely scattered.
     Here it managed to live for a few years. Then a Governor was appointed who did not desire to have any Jews dwelling in his dominions, and so he proclaimed this town a country. And forthwith this family had to pack up once more and find new quarters.
     Thus from a very early age Mr. Chideckel was inured to hardships and deprivation. Possibly as a compensation his literary aspirations blossomed early. He relates with much amusement his first peep into print, a short story in one of the local papers, and the delight of his father in the "wonder child" -- he was only 11 -- the pride with which the paper was shown to all the old cronies at the synagogue.
     He was always a student, and so the only calling that is open to the intellectual orthodox Jew in Russia was chosen for him, and he began at a very early age to prepare himself for a rabbi. For a time he studied under the chief Rabbi of Russia. He worked very hard, sometimes putting in 18 or 20 hours a day at his books and often was obligated, he says, to keep his feet in cold water in order to remain awake.
     He was graduated at 16 -- an almost unprecedented early age. But already doubts and questions regarding his teachings had begun to trouble him. He had come in contact with new ideas, and his outlook on life was materially altered. He found the servitude of his proscribed duties and beliefs as a rabbi becoming more and more irksome and congenial, and he decided he could no longer conscientiously live this life.

HIS FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

     He was only 17, alone in a strange country, with no money, barely sufficient clothing, no knowledge of English and his head stuff with unsalable information and dreams. It might have been interesting to hear the first impressions of which this big, free land made on such an immigrant.
     When Mr. Chideckel was questioned he said that the first awful loneliness and the many after-years of increasing drudgery had eliminated almost all the other memories. But just two rather queer impressions seemed to have remained with him. He remembers his astonishment when he discovered that tobacco is chewed as well as smoked and that it is the custom of the men to prop their feet on tables, chairs, mantels -- anywhere at all -- rather than on the floor when they wish to take their ease. So, my American gentlemen, these are your attributes that first strike a foreigner....
     [Many paragraphs are spent on his entry into publishing after arriving in Baltimore.]

SLEEPS LESS TO STUDY MORE.

     "But do not these varied interests detract from your studies?" he was asked.
     "Oh, no. I dare not neglect them. I make up the time by sleeping less."
     The several enterprises to which he gives his services are none of them very prosperous, and the energy and interest he brings to them are largely labors of love. His earnings are very meager. His home, three or four very small rooms, is ornamented chiefly by the hope and love of the thrifty little wife, an added responsibility which he assumed about two years ago.
     There is also a baby girl, and as Mr. Chideckel has little playtime the one recreation that he says he permits himself is the few stolen minutes of sport with her.
     And what are his plans for the future? After graduation he intends to hang out his sign with M.D. on it and to essay success as a doctor. But what are his ambitions, for the man, as you have seen, is an idealist and needs to have something more to work for than a mere livelihood.
     He is an ardent Zionist, saturated with its schemes and ideals. He hopes some day to go to Jerusalem and there in the promised land of his fathers, in the future kingdom of his people as he fondly trusts, by means of his profession and his pen, to do what he can to further the cause. He is not a religious fanatic; in fact, his tenets of faith conform to the most radical element of Judaism. The few ceremonies that he still retains, out of the thousand and one prescribed, he practices because of their associations, which are dear to him, or to refrain from offending the more religious persons among whom he lives rather than from any faith in them....

I have only included about a third of the story, but it is a marvelous and lengthy portrait of a man driven to excel and change his circumstances. It is a great immigrant story too. I only wish the reporter had given the name of his wife. Was it the beloved Hannah? If so, they married circa 1906. That makes me wonder about the "limited" divorce Chideckel was given from his wife Sarah in 1902. Why? Because he wasn't given an "absolute" divorce from Sarah until 1919. How does that work? I am confused.

The next story I'd like to share is a letter to the editor he wrote a few years later, after he finally became a doctor. I find it particularly interesting since Dr. Chideckel's medical books sometimes dealt with sex and female sexual perversion. This letter should give you a taste of his attitudes -- which perhaps shouldn't be surprising since he was a rabbinical student:

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 23 April 1912, Tuesday:

     To The Editor of The Sun -- Sir: Disreputable houses infest whole streets of our city; degeneracy, debauchery and sensuality flourish in our midst; men are permitted to destroy their bodies as well as their souls, to spread disease, to ruin innocent men and women and cause untimely deaths to generations yet unborn.
     The red lights glare in the open. The creatures in disgusting attire carry on their repugnant and horrible traffic unmolested in sections where thousands of respectable families dwell, undermining the morals of their sons and their daughters and robbing children of their innocence. The police are their protectors rather than their molestors. To see a guardian of the law carrying on animated conversation with these beings is a common sight.
     Every year the human hyenas who conduct these places are summoned to court, when a nominal tax is imposed upon each, thus giving them a legal right to carry on their trade unrestrained.
     Never a word about this crying evil in the sermons of our spiritual guides--it is bad form to discuss it in public, much more so in a house of worship. Hence the utter destruction of souls and of bodies, of morals and of chastity, must go on.
M. Chideckel, M.D.

Interestingly, another reader wrote a response that Dr. Chideckel seemed more concerned with the souls and fates of the men rather than the women. He pointed out that the "fallen" women were once as innocent as his own mother and deserved as much concern. Good point!

I need my publisher to put an ad in the Sun like this!

There are dozens of stories about Dr. Chideckel, not to mention the articles about Jewish issues he wrote himself for the Sunpapers. I don't have time for all of them, but I do want to include at least one story that mentions his career as an author.  So here goes:

The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 14 January 1933, Saturday:


DR. MAURICE CHIDECKEL is just as skillful with his pen as with his scalpel. He can inspect a pair of troublesome tonsils or write a paragraph full of well-carved phrases with equal ease. His office at 2225 Linden avenue is also a literary studio, and when he is not giving medical advice he usually is hard at work writing books.
     Tonsils and such things go hand in hand with literature as far as Dr. Chideckel is concerned; most of his books, in fact, are based on experiences he has had as a physician.
     Dr. Chideckel began his writing before he actually started the practice of medicine. He had just come over from Russia, he was a student at the University of Maryland and he was very poor. So he turned to writing as a means of making money and turned out several translations from German into Yiddish. He also worked as a correspondent and writer on Jewish newspapers.
     Several years ago Dr. Chideckel achieved a measure of fame by writing Strictly Private, a medical diary. The book had fifteen printings. Then he wrote Sonya Babushka, a novel of old Russia. Although he still speaks with a slight accent, Dr. Chideckel has mastered English grammar and idioms and he writes with ease.
     Sometimes a friend helps Dr. Chideckel edit a book. Dr. John Ruhrah, for instance, is helping him edit a book now in preparation--Behind The Screen, another volume of medico-literary reminiscences. Dr. Chideckel, however, not satisfied writing one book, is preparing another volume called Fakers--Old and New. He is working over the proofs now--between patients' visits.
     Despite his versatility, Dr. Chideckel is retiring in manner. Short and slender, wearing glasses, he sits in his office and in his usually mild voice minimizes his accomplishments. He says he has few hobbies, except writing and music. And writing is really as much of a vocation as an avocation. As far as music is concerned, he says he has "only a listener's approach."
     Dr. Chideckel, who is 52 years old, is married and has two children, a son and a daughter.

I was going to leave Dr. Chideckel there, modestly resting on his accomplishments. However, the sad circumstances that took me to his final resting place compels me to include a fiery letter to the editor he wrote blaming Christianity for the wholesale slaughter of Jews around the world. The letter seems to have been inspired by an sudden outburst of widespread violence against the Jews in Russia. Being a survivor of Russian persecution himself, Chideckel obviously knew what he was talking about. 

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 15 November 1905, Wednesday:

Messrs. Editors:
     A whole nation is now at the brink of extermination. A people that has given you a religion and affected the progressive civilization of every age is now threatened with utter destruction. Tens of thousands of Jews are being barbarously slain, hunted down like beasts of the forest, burned and flayed alive, while miscalled Christianity holds itself aloof, secretly enjoying the spectacle. All Judah trembles in agony and despair, to the delight of Christianity.
     You are bewailing the tragic death of one Jew, while killing other Jews was made a part of your religion. Since the disappearance of the Urim and Thummin and the golden splendor of the Solomonic Temple and since we were forced to live among you, you have made your lives black with unimaginable butcheries practiced on defenseless Jews. Turn to whatever clime you will -- to Russia, to Roumania, to Germany or Austria -- each and all pass in succession, like Banquo's kings, and cry aloud for the blood steeped stage of the eternal tragedy, like many vultures on a fallen carcass, each seizing his share of prey, tearing and mingling with insatiable gluttony.
     Somewhere it is said that Ireland is the only country in the world which cannot be charged with persecuting the Jews. Poor Erin! Thy Christian brethren accuse thee of a crime thou art innocent of. Though thyself an eternal badge of sufferance, the blood of my people rests even on thy head. Thy streets of Limerick are stained with the blood of thy fellow-sufferers. Reptiles breathe even in thy fair Emerald Isle.
     Your lips overflow with freedom, you raise your voices in protest against vivisection, you are meting out punishments to those who are cruel to their dogs, yet you lay desolate our homes, you slay our fathers, outrage our daughters and butcher our infants. You glory in the Gospel preached by a Jew; you shed tears over the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, Himself a Jew, while murdering Jews is part of your common occupation.
     With our own lifeblood we must write our own records. Such is the will of Christendom. We must sink battling against bloodshed, bigotry, superstition, slander and oppression.
     Murder us, slaughter us, grind us down, burn and flay us alive, we have one priceless treasure--our pure and beautiful religion--which you cannot crush out. Even your Crusaders, your auto-de-fe, your Inquisition and your Torquemadas cannot overcome the vivifying power of our faith which has always sustained us. And the day of reckoning may yet come.
Maurice Chideckel
College of Physicians and Surgeons.

If you think Dr. Chideckel is being overwrought and unfair, consider the fact that this was written decades before the Holocaust and one-hundred-and-sixteen-years before his own resting place was desecrated by anti-Semitic vandalism.

We still have a long way to go.

BTW, many of Dr. Chideckel's books are still available. His book, Female Sex Perversion, is actually available on Kindle. But let me warn you: Chideckel's Freudian and patriarchal viewpoints go against the grain of modern thought on the subject....

Check out his books Here.

Remember, there is a story behind every grave. You never know what you're missing when you walk past one...

Grave Tales:

My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & NobleChapel Street is the tale of a young man battling a demonic entity that has driven members of his family to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting. 


Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

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Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast #76: Time Travel Round Robin

Here's another COVID free ZOOM edition of the Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast, a lively discussion of the movies that sometimes devolves into a group therapy session.

This week we have another one of our cinematic round robins. The genre: Time Travel Films.  We each brought one of our favorites the table to share with our fellow Mother Podcasters. A lot of fun choices, and some surprising ones too.  Check it out.

Here's the podcast on YouTube:

                

Our Podcast is now on iTunes: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Subscribe to our YouTube page: Yippee Ki Yay Mother Podcast
Check out our webpage: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast

Like us on Facebook: Yippee-Ki-Yay Mother Podcast.
Follow us on Twitter: YKYPodcast
Check out Wojo's webpage: Wojo's World
And follow her on Twitter: @TheMicheleWojo

Check out our other episodes here:


My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.


Learn more about the book, click Here.

Watch the book trailer:

  

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Grave Tale #21: Rev. Ronald P. Pytel

I am an avid genealogist. The past is very important to me. I spend a lot of time in cemeteries photographing tombstones to upload on the website FindAGrave.

I enjoy recognizing long dead people by putting memorials to them online. However, every once and a while something grabs me about a specific grave. It could be the name, or the dates or a ceramic photo. In those cases, I feel compelled to dig a little deeper. That's what this series of blogs is about: The tales behind those graves. Some of my subjects will be heroes. Some will be villains. Some will be victims. And some will linger in between, like most of us. However, don't be surprised if the tales are inherently tragic. These are grave tales. They all end in death.

I was taking my great-aunt Elsie to visit the graves of her parents in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cemetery. As we were passing the adjacent Holy Rosary Cemetery, she asked, "Have you ever seen the grave of the miracle priest buried in there? I know where it is." Miracle priest? I'm glad no one was tailgating me because I slammed on the brakes. There's no way I was going to miss the chance to visit the grave of a miracle priest. Without even knowing his name or story, I knew I had another grave tale on my hands. 

His grave was easy to find. It was right along the walkway to the chapel at the top of the hill. His name was Ronald P. Pytel. He is somewhat unique in this series of blogs. Most people are included here because of the way they died. Father Pytel is included because of the way he didn't die -- at least the first time.  

Here's the story:

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 08 December 1996, Sunday:



Priest's recovery raises issues of faith and fact
-----
Healing: Roman Catholic authorities are carefully investigating the case of a Baltimore
priest who says a nun who died in 1938 helped cure his heart problem.
-----

By Debbie M. Price
Sun Staff

     On this cold and gray morning, as the bells peal nine times, the faithful gather to pray and praise at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church. The Rev. Ronald Pytel, resplendent in white vestments, exhorts the worshipers to give thanks, not just for their blessings, which are many, but for the pain, the adversity, even the tragedies that may have befallen them.
     "What has come into our lives ... the bad as well as the good, should be considered gifts from God to provide us the opportunity for growth and blessing," Pytel tells the congregants.


     The simple, heartfelt message -- a pragmatic late-20th century interpretation of the age-old theme of redemption through suffering -- resonate with personal meaning for Pytel.
     The 49-year-old priest, stricken with a degenerative aortic valve and dire congestive heart failure, was perilously close to death 18 months ago.
     His full recovery after valve-replacement surgery surprised not only his Johns Hopkins doctor, but also set in motion an inquiry by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, the magnitude of which has not been seen in recent memory.
     At the heart of the archdiocese's investigation is the question now sending ripples of excitement through the Baltimore Catholic community: Are the faithful of Holy Rosary on Chester Avenue in Fells Point witness to a miracle?
     Pytel, a diffident and sweet-faced priest of Polish descent, credits his recovery not only to medicine but also to the divine intervention of the Blessed Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun beatified in 1993, through whom Pytel and fellow worshipers prayed for his recovery.


     However, his doctor, while assessing the recovery as "remarkable and unexpected," sees more science than the supernatural in Pytel's healing.
     The outcome, while rare, he said, is not unprecedented in similar cases.
     "I'm saying that I was healed, that I had an experience that was out of the ordinary, but I haven't used the word miracle," Pytel says.

A grueling inquiry

     The word "miracle" -- tossed about freely in colloquial speech -- is not used lightly by the Roman Catholic Church.
     The authentication of a miracle is very serious business, for proven miracles -- the most rare of events determined to be caused only by the hand of God and not explicable according to natural laws - are necessary for the making of saints.
     Those looking into Pytel's experience are hesitant even to utter the word for fear of prejudicing what has become a grueling, weeks-long investigation, conducted with all the formality of a secular court of law, in the Archdiocese Office of the Tribunal on Cathedral Street. 
     No one at the archdiocese will discuss the particulars of Pytel's case, but priests familiar with the process of authenticating a miracle say that medical opinion will no doubt weigh heavily -- and possibly against a miracle -- in this case.
     The results of the archdiocese's fact-gathering mission -- to be compiled in "phone book-size" volumes -- will be forwarded to the Vatican, where interested parties have been following the case.
    "All the burners are on," says Bill Blaul, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
     "The Vatican burner in on. The archdiocese burner is on, and the parish burner is on."
     The ramifications of the investigation are enormous.
     If Pytel's healing is determined, indeed, to be miraculous, his recovery could become the second authenticated miracle needed for the canonization of the Blessed Faustina.
     Her canonization, in turn, no doubt could lead to the further spread of the Divine Mercy, an increasingly popular devotion that derives from the writings of Faustina, which recount what she said were revelations from Jesus about his mercy.
     And at the very least, the authentication of a miracle would forever change life for Pytel and his largely Polish Holy Rosary parish, whose members dram of building a shrine that one day could attract religious pilgrims.
     But such possibilities are still far from realities.
     Only a tiny fraction of purported miracles are ever authenticated by the Catholic Church. (At the sanctuary of Lourdes, only 65 if the more than 6,000 healings claimed since 1862 have been authenticated as miracles.)
     The Catholic Church's definition of a miracle is exacting.
     In the case of a healing, the recovery must be sudden -- "instantaneous" is a word often used -- attributable to a divine intercession and unexplained by any other measure, medical or scientific.
     The scrutiny not only by priests and church officials but also by doctors, scientists and people outside the Catholic faith is unrelenting.
     "There has always been a feeling among some Catholics that the big point is God and Christ and to a special extent, Mary, but that the cult of saints, which is very heavy, can be overdone," says the Rev. Joseph Gallagher, a retired priest and former editor of the Catholic Review.
     "There is a tradition in the church of not overdoing this veneration of a mere human being. That's why it usually takes the church decades and decades to make up her mind."

Interpretations diverge.

     The severity of Pytel's heart condition and the rapidity and completeness of his recovery are undisputed.
     Beyond that, however, the interpretations diverge, dividing along the lines of science and religion.
     In November 1994, Pytel came down with a cold he couldn't kick.
     The winter cold segued into spring allergies, and Pytel struggled to meet the duties of a parish of 1,630 members.
     He was winded. He couldn't climb stairs without stopping.
     Finally in May, near collapse, he visited his regular doctor, who detected strange heart sounds and, alarmed, suggested further tests.
     At the request of a fellow priest and close friend, Rev. Lawrence Gesy, Pytel consulted Dr. Nicholas Fortuin.
     A Johns Hopkins cardiologist, Fortuin is a renowned expert in heart valve-replacement surgery whose resume lists 71 medical journal articles, 22 textbook chapters and 12 educational tapes he has produced on cardiovascular topics.
     Fortuin found his new patient to be very sick with an obstructed aortic valve, an enlarged heart and fluid in his lungs.
     The priest was, in Fortuin's words, "in very real danger of sudden death."
     But until June 995 he was completely unaware that his heart was dangerously overworked pumping blood through an opening that had shrunk from the normal half-dollar size to a pinhole.
     Subsequent tests found no underlying arterial disease and on June 13. 1995, Dr. Peter Greene, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, replaced Pytel's diseased heart valve with a mechanical one.
     "I expected he would improve immeasurably because he was so desperately ill," Fortuin says, "but I did not expect his heart function to return to normal."
     Pytel recalls that Fortuin gave his friend Gesy a grim prognosis and asked the fellow priest to break the news gently.
     "Father Larry told me that Dr. Fortuin had said that I was uninsurable, that I couldn't resume my old schedule, that my life, likely was shortened and that I should think about early retirement," Pytel said.
     Says Fortuin, "What I told him was that he wouldn't return to 100 percent. I told him he would be well but not normal."
     Gradually, Pytel gained strength so that by Oct 5, 1995 -- the anniversary of the Sister Faustina's death in 1938 and three years after the confirmation of the first miracle attributed to her intercession -- he was able to lead 12 hours of congregational prayer in celebration of the Divine Mercy and in preparation for Pope John Paul II's visit to Baltimore.
     Holy Rosary is designated as an archdiocesan shrine to the Divine Mercy, a devotion that is rapidly gaining popularity in Baltimore and around the world.
     As its simplest distillation, the devotion preaches the mercy of Christ and encourages followers to seek Christ's mercy and practice mercy toward others.
     The message is at the heart of a 697-page "diary" that Sister Faustina, born Helen Kowalska, penned at the instruction, she said, of Jesus.
     A simple woman with scant education, she was not believed to have been capable of writing such a work.
     Sister Faustina, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 33, also described a vision of Christ, which has been translated into a painting that has become emblematic of the movement.
     In the painting, Christ's hand is raised in blessing and two rays emanate from his heart -- one red for the blood and the other white for the water.



Presence of a friend

     Pytel carries with him at all times a small round glass religuary with a tiny dot of bone fragment from Faustina's body.
     When he prays, Pytel says, he feels her presence -- "Like a friend."
     During the Oct 5, 1995, prayer vigil, Pytel said he began experiencing chest pains for the first time since his surgery, a sensation Fortuin says could be attributed to the normal healing process.
     The pains continued for a few days and, Pytel noticed, seemed to be worse immediately after he took the medication proscribed to improve the function of his heart.
     "I called Dr. Fortuin and I said, 'Nick, I think something is going on,'" Pytel says.
     "My body was telling me that something was different."
     At Fortuin's suggestion, Pytel halved the dosage and the pain, he says, diminished.
     On Nov. 9, 1995, Pytel visited Fortuin for his scheduled follow-up examination.
     When Fortuin listened to his heart with a stethoscope, the previous "galloping noise," indicative of a pathology, was gone.
     He ordered an echocardiogram, a test in which heart size and function are measured with sound waves.
     "He said, 'What have you done?'" Pytel recalls.
     "And I said, "A lot of prayer.' And he said, 'Prayer and...?' And I said, 'Prayer and science.'"
     Pytel believes his rapid and unexpected recovery is a direct result of his prayers for intercession from the Blessed Faustina.
     The chest pains, be believes, signaled his instantaneous recovery and his body's rejection of medication it no longer needed.

Doctor acknowledges faith

     Fortuin, a no-nonsense man of science and a taciturn Protestant whose discomfort at publicly discussing his own beliefs is evident, does not discount Pytel's faith.


     "I do not deny that his getting well has a lot to do with faith," says Fortuin.
     "I would ,,, say that spirituality is important for healing."
     He acknowledges, too, that he did say, "Father, someone has intervened for you."
     But, he says, he did not mean the words precisely as Pytel interpreted them.
     "I was, I suppose, playing to my audience," Fortuin says, noting that he had been impressed by Pytel's faith and his calmness before what for most patients is terrifying open-heart surgery.
     Nevertheless, Fortuin makes quite clear that Pytel's recovery, though certainly exceptional and unanticipated, is within the realm of medical possibility.
     "This is unusual but not even worthy of a case report in medical literature," Fortuin says.
     "You might see this kind of recovery in 5 percent of the cases or less."
     And what might make the difference in those cases?
     Fortuin shrugs, "It's either faith or luck of the draw."
     Even so, the case is so unusual medically and Fortuin was so impressed by Pytel's faith and the role that the priest believes it played in his recovery that the cardiologist invited the priest to speak with him before medical students and physicians at Johns Hopkins cardiology grand rounds in September.
     "I thought that bringing him in to discuss his faith would be enlightening to a group who is scientifically based," Fortuin says.

Faith and healing

     Faith and healing are increasingly being discussed in religious and medical circles.
     Numerous studies over the past decade have offered anecdotal evidence that people who have strong spiritual beliefs not only lead healthier lives, less troubled by chronic complaints, but also often have swifter recoveries from serious illness.
     Dale A. Matthews, an associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and a senior research fellow at the National Institute for Healthcare Research in Rockville, participated in a study of 212 cases that found a "positive linkage" between faith and health in 75 percent of the cases.
     "When we just use a medical approach and don't use a spiritual approach, I think patients suffer," says Matthews, an evangelical Protestant who often prays with his patients.
     On the science side of the equation, Matthews notes, "religion probably does produce natural opiates in the brain."
    As Time magazine reported in a June cover story, studies suggest that praying induces a relaxation response that lowers the production of so-called "stress hormones" and that, in turn, leads to lower heart rate, blood pressure and respiration.
     At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Stuart Varon, medical director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Sinai Hospital and an Orthodox Jew, teaches a course entitled "Faith and Medicine."
     The course, Varon notes, is designed to teach young doctors to be sensitive to their patients' spiritual needs and and seek out hospital chaplains when questions arise.
     "Just as a person who needs a particular medicine won't heal as well if he doesn't get it," says Varon, "so, too, if a person's sense of spirituality is not addressed, when appropriate, that, too, can be a detriment."

Beyond medical explanation

     Although doctors and religious authorities alike may credit prayer with enhancing an individual's recovery, such salutary effects of faith are not enough to constitute a miracle, according to the church definition.
     The patient's recovery must be beyond medical explanation.
     The fact that Pytel's recovery, while remarkable and unexpected, is not unheard-of no doubt will be considered by the fact-finding board and could weigh heavily against the authentication of a miracle, priests familiar with canon law say.
     Since Nov. 18, priests, doctors, canon lawyers and others have been spending 10 to 12 hours a day taking sworn testimony and question witnesses at the Office of Tribunal.
     Fortuin, who testified before the fact-finding body, speaks highly of the investigators' seriousness and thoroughness.
     As judicial vicar, Monsignor Jeremiah Kenney is responsible for conducting the hearings, which are shrouded in secrecy.

'Getting at the facts'

     "The decisions about miracles are not formed in the court of public opinion," says Blaul. 
     "They're arrived at by a very thorough process of getting at the facts."
     In fact, it took more than 11 years for the Catholic Church to authenticate the first and only miracle so far attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Faustina.
     In that case, Maureen Digan, a Massachusetts woman who suffered from lymphedema melroys, a rare disease that causes massive swelling, was inexplicably cured while praying at the tomb of Sister Faustina in March 1981.
     Digan, then 30, had undergone 50 operations, lost her right leg and was in danger of losing her left leg when, at her husband Bob's urging, traveled to Sister Faustina's tomb in Krakow, Poland.
     At the tomb, said Digan, a lapsed Catholic, she thought she heard a voice tell her, "If you want something, ask for it."
     Feeling out of sorts, Digan muttered, "If you're going to do something, do it now."
     Instantly, she said, the pain and swelling in her left leg disappeared. 
     "I didn't have faith, I didn't think it was a healing," said Digan. "I thought I was having a breakdown."
     Over the next several years, Digan, who now works at the national shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass., was examined and questioned by doctors, many of them non-Catholics, who were at a loss to explain what had happened.
     Ultimately, the commission of cardinals confirmed Digan's miracle on Oct. 6, 1992, enabling Pope John Paul to beatify Sister Faustina on April 18, 1993.
     "I've wondered, 'Why me?'" Digan says.
     "And I've never come up with an answer. Maybe it is to show that God's mercy is for everyone, not just the holy people."
     "I wasn't holy."
     In the past decade, the devotion of the Divine Mercy has gained devotees from Poland to the Philippines.
     About 15,000 worshipers gathered last year on Mercy Sunday, the anniversary of Sister Faustina's beatification,at the Stockbridge shrine established by the Congregation of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
     "The cause [for canonization] has proceeded quickly because of the spread of the message of Divine Mercy," says the Rev. Shaun O'Connor, MIC, superior of the Marian Scholasticate in Washington, D.C.
     It is openly acknowledged that the pope, who has canonized a record 273 saints during his 17-year papacy, has a special affinity for the Polish nun and the devotion of Divine Mercy.
     There is even talk, likely wishful, that the pope might dispense with the second miracle usually required for canonization.

Hopes for the future

     Meanwhile, at Holy Rosary, the promoters of the devotion of Divine Mercy are, indeed, hoping for a miracle.
     After the Catholic Review reported that Pytel's recovery is being investigated as a potential miracle, the church gift shop, which sells Faustina's diary and other devotionals of Divine Mercy, received numerous inquiries.
     Gesy's book on healing, "The Hem of His Garment," which contains a chapter about Pytel's experience, has sold more than 100 copies, gift shop workers say.
     Proceeds from the gift shop go toward the $60,000 the church is trying to raise to replace the current shrine at Holy Rosary, a painting of the Divine Mercy on a brass easel, with a shrine more in keeping with the ornate Romanesque architecture of the church
     "We're hoping one day to have people come to make pilgrimages to Holy Rosary," said Victoria Elieson, who runs the gift shop.
     Elieson and her husband Bruce, who is Jewish, donated $25,000 of the $38,000 raised so far.
     Dottie Olszewski, who was a driving force behind the establishment of the shrine, prayed for Pytel's recovery during a pilgrimage to Poland in August.
     "I made a deal with her," Olszewski says.
     "I said if you go to Jesus and get Father Pytel healed, I will spend the rest of my days spreading the message of Divine Mercy and working for you to be canonized."
     Olszewski is keeping her end of the bargain. She testified for an hour and a half before the fact-finding committee.
     And regardless of what the church ultimately determines, she has no doubts.
     "Was this a miracle?" Olszewski says. "Oh, absolutely."
     Researches Robert Schrott and Paul McCardell contributed to this report.

Wow.  That was a fascinating story, treated with depth and respect by the Sun. But would the Vatican declare Pytel's healing a miracle? The participants had to wait years for the answer, but I can give it to you now:

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 21 December 1999, Tuesday:


Recovery deemed work of a saint
-----
Pope declares miracle when priest is cured after prayer to sister

By Erin Texeira
Sun Staff

     Four years ago, The Rev. Ronald P. Pytel's doctors took one look at his severely damaged heart and said he could die at any time. Months later, in a recovery doctors struggled to explain, he was found to be problem-free, taken off medication and sent home.
     Yesterday, Pope John Paul II declared that his cure was a miracle.
     And he decreed the miracle happened through the divine intervention of a deceased Polish nun, Blessed Faustina Kowalska. The decision means she will be canonized a saint in April.
     The much-anticipated decision actually came last month, when Pytel -- pastor of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Fells Point -- and Baltimore Archdiocese officials traveled to Rome to hear the vote at the Vatican.
     "We literally danced back [to America] when we got the news," Pytel said yesterday. "It was quite a feeling."
     The decision comes after years of research, repeated medical examinations, numerous sworn depositions -- and prayer. In all, a team of priests and Archdiocese officials submitted more than 1000 pages of documentation to the Vatican to support the nomination.
     Vatican verification of miracles is "a very involved process," said Monsignor Jeremiah F. Kenney, of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, who headed research on the case. "They try to find every reason to shoot it down, you know?"
     In his 21 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II has named 295 saints. About 600 people have been canonized saints, said Raymond P. Kempisty, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
     The Vatican requires at least two miracles be associated with a person before he or she can become a saint. Kowalska's first miracle was verified in 1993 when the pope declared that she had healed a Massachusetts woman of lymphedema, a chronic condition in which fluid backs up into the tissues.
     In June 1995, doctors told the parish priest he had severe heart disease. Days later, Pytel underwent open-heart surgery to receive an artificial heart valve. Through complications of the surgery, he held on through the summer, but made no significant improvement.
     His Johns Hopkins Hospital cardiologist, Dr. Nicholas Fortuin, told The Sun in 1996 that the priest had been in "very real danger of sudden death." He had not been expected to recover enough to resume his full-time duties at Holy Rosary.
     On Oct 5, 1995, the feast day of Blessed Faustina, Pytel spent 12 hours praying in the Chester Street Church. At one point, he lay on the floor, receiving the prayers of fellow parishioners.
     It was then, he said, that the miracle happened.
     Within days he was able to cut back his medication and began feeling better. A few weeks later, after another medical examination, his doctors, stunned, declared him cured.
     A year later, Pytel, Kenney and the Rev. Lawrence Gesy began submitting documentation to the Vatican to have the incident declared a miracle -- and Kowalska, whose diary "Divine Mercy in My Soul" has won her an international following, declared a saint.
     Asked yesterday whether there is any indication in Pytel's heart that it had been diseased -- other than the artificial valve -- Fortuin said, "If you covered up that valve, you would see his heart as perfectly normal. He has been looked at by many physicians, and they have all been as surprised as I was about this."
     The recovery, though not unheard of, is highly unusual, Fortuin said.
     Kenney said the miracle rests on the fact that the cure was complete and happened so quickly.
     In 1997, Holy Rosary dedicated a shrine to Kowalska. After she is canonized April 30, they will alter it only slightly -- to include a new halo around her head.


So my great-aunt Elsie was right. Pytel was indeed a miracle priest, and, as a result, the late Sister Faustina has been promoted to Saint Faustina. If you want to read her book and see what all the fuss was about, you can buy it here: Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. I picked up a copy.

Father Pytel would finally meet his Maker, and Saint Faustina, on November 3, 2003.


Dr. Nicholas J. Fortuin, who played a major part in this story, died in April 2010. He's not on Findagrave. He should be. I'll have to find out where he is buried and rectify that situation!

Remember, there is a story behind every grave. You never know what you're missing when you walk past one...


Grave Tales:

My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & NobleChapel Street is the tale of a young man battling a demonic entity that has driven members of his family to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting. 


Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

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