St. Chantal

St. Chantal is a Kalentian saint whose feast day is celebrated on the 14th day of Mar. She is the patron saint of pathfinders and guides, wild places, and unmarried women.

Background

Chantal was born the daughter of simple peasants dwelling amidst the vast fens known as the Weepmere, lying in the heartland of Ruv several leagues northeast of the imperial capital of Summa Ruva. She grew up a typical child of the fens, fishing and fowling and gathering wild rice and roots from the land's natural bounty; it was said that she was as perfectly at home in the mazy marshes as were the wild ducks and bog roe. Despite being poor and unlettered, Chantal was nonetheless acclaimed in the nearby village of Lacrus for her beautiful voice, and would often sing during the pagan community's religious processions and festivals.

However, her life was changed forever when St. Demetrius the Messenger came to Lacrus, preaching the verses of the One True God and telling the words and deeds of Kalen, the God's own son. Chantal was swiftly won over by the saint's wise humility and his message of peace and love, and she became a fast convert to the Kalentic faith. Following St. Demetrius' departure, Chantal not only kept the faith but spread the word of God and Kalen throughout the area, singing the holy versus and winning converts by the loveliness of her voice, which awoke in the hearts of her listeners a deep and passionate reverence for the songs of God and His son.

But it was during the persecutions of the Emperor Orontius that Chantal's faith would be most severely tested, when the churches of the young religion were pulled down, and those who resisted the demands of the empire to conform to the religion of state were cruelly put to the sword. The village of Lacrus having fully converted to Kalentism, it had become a beacon of holy flame to all those in the surrounding region, firing their faith and inflaming resistance to the oppressors. When Orontius sent soldiers to burn the village to the ground and kill or enslave all resistors, Chantal bravely led them through the fens which she knew so well, conveying them to safety in the heart of the bog. Here they built a new community where they continued for some time to reside in peace, though forever being a thorn in the side of the Empire for their perceived transgressions against the authority of the state.