The Stole That Survived the Fire
When flames consumed St. Luke’s Church last year, many precious items were lost. Among the things thought to be gone forever was a handmade stole belonging to the Rev. Bryan Owen, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. The stole,lovingly crafted by his mother Banky Wilson for his ordination to the priesthood, survived the fire against all odds and has since become a powerful symbol of faith, love and hope.
Fr. Bryan shared that his mother, an accomplished needle worker, spent more than a year creating the stole using petit point embroidery. The design features a variety of Christian symbols stitched in vibrant colors.
“She worked on it almost daily,” he said.“Petit point requires a lot of skill and a great deal of patience. It’s a one-of-a-kind gift that is an outward and visible sign of my mother’s love for me.”
When the church burned, Fr. Bryan assumed the stole had been lost. “It was heartbreaking to think that such a precious gift would be forever gone,” he said. “I remember telling my wife, Julie, that even if it could be recovered, it was probably damaged beyond repair.”
But that Sunday, parishioners Brookie Allphin-Smith, Brittany Attuso and Ashley Danos, with the help of Steven Sickinger, braved the wreckage of the sacristy and recovered the stole. They brought it to Fr. Bryan’s home that Sunday afternoon.
Ashley said that they were able to get to the back closet of the sacristy door where the vestments were kept but couldn’t open it. Steven was stronger and able to pull it open for them and reported that he could see colored vestments that didn’t look damaged. The group formed a line to get them out of the closet and past the rubble to place them on clean concrete. When Steven handed them Fr. Bryan’s stole, they knew they had to bring it to his house immediately.
“I was overwhelmed with joy and relief,” he said. “It smelled of smoke and had some soot on it but was otherwise okay. It’s incredible that it made it through with such minimal damage.”
Catherine Pletsch of The Elegant Needle in Baton Rouge carefully cleaned and restored the stole to its original beauty.
Fr. Bryan wore the stole on All Saints’ Sunday, which also marked the groundbreaking for St. Luke’s new church building. “Wearing it that day helped me feel connected to the communion of saints, both the living and the dead,” he said. “It’s more than a symbol of a mother’s love for her son. It’s also a sign of resilience and resurrection hope for our entire church community.”