Barney the Friendly (or Purple) Dinosaur as French Revolutionary

"Anyone today who would worship with mimes and balloons, with instant folk music composed by commercial interests, is capable of singing the 'Ronde de la Décade' about the elimination of the sabbatarian calendar:

Oublions saint Roche et son chien

Saint Crépin et saint Crépinien

Et Monsieur le Cochon

Du saint en capuchon

Celébrons la Décade."

George William Rutler, "Church and state in Vianney's youth," Appendix I to Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 228, citing Albert Mathiez, La théophilanthropie et le culte décadaire, 1796-1801 (Paris:  Félix Alcan, 1904), 64, which punctuates and formats it differently, as in this lame attempt at a translation:

Let's forget St. Roch and his dog,

St. Crispin and St. Crispinian

     And Monsieur the Pig

     Of the saint in cowl.

     Let's celebrate the Décade, . . . etc. [(Refrain)]

I know absolutely nothing about the Republican calendar, or any of the word play here, but 5 Frimaire (formerly 25 November) was apparently the day of the pig.  None of the Catholic saints mentioned in this stanza were associated with 25 November.  "Du saint en capuchon" is obscure to me, but the pig was an attribute of St. Anthony of Egypt, so could he be the "saint en capuchon"?  His feast day was 17 January.

Probably I've got this all wrong.  Nonetheless, what Rutler makes of it stands alone.

"J'avise le bon Dieu et le bon Dieu m'avise."

     The farmer Louis Chaffangeon, as quoted by the Curé d'Ars, as quoted by Abbé Francis Trochu, in his The Curé d'Ars:  St Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859) according to the Acts of the process of canonization and numerous hitherto unpublished documents, trans. Dom Ernest Graf, O.S.B. (London:  Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., 1951 [1927]), 184; and George William Rutler, in his Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 151.

"When fashion inclines to silk underwear and denim outerwear, it is well to remember a man who had it the other way, his salute to an all-seeing God."

George William Rutler, Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 99.  Yeah, but this is now a bit dated.  Now fashion inclines to silk underwear as outerwear period.  So is that a tribute, too?

"But breathing is by rote, too, and no less vital for that."

"A couple of extra prayers.  If we knew less, we would call it formalism, religion by rote.  But breathing is by rote, too, and no less vital for that."

George William Rutler, Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 55.  This goes on for another page.

"Each enslavement to sin calls itself a new form of liberation as it tightens its chains."

George William Rutler, Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 30-31.

"in admiring the virtues of the saints, we are only admiring the virtues of Jesus Christ."

"In his apostles [Christ] gazes upon his zeal and his love for the salvation of souls; in the martyrs he gazes upon his patience, his sufferings and his grievous death; in the hermits he sees his obscure and hidden life; in the virgins he admires his stainless purity, and in all the saints his limitless love; so that in admiring the virtues of the saints, we are only admiring the virtues of Jesus Christ."

     The Curé d'Ars, as quoted by George William Rutler, in his Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 29-30.  Here is another, slightly different translation (Jean LaFrance, Abiding in God, trans. Florestine Audette (Sherbroooke, QC:  Mediaspaul, 2004), 108, from Demeurer en Dieu (Paris:  Mediaspaul, 1995):

Saints are like so many little mirrors in which Jesus Christ contemplates himself.  In his apostles, he contemplates his zeal and love for the salvation of souls; in martyrs, he contemplates his patience, his sufferings and his painful death.  In his hermits, he sees his obscure and hidden life.  In the virgins, he admires his purity without blemish and in all the saints his boundless charity.  This is so in such a way that by admiring the virtues of the saints, we only admire the virtues of Jesus Christ.  If we could question the saints, they would tell us that their happiness is to love God and to be guaranteed of always loving him ([L'Abbé Bernard Nodet,] Le Curé d’Ars, sa pensée, son coeur, pp. 240-241).

This was translated into English by John Joyce as The heart of the Curé of Ars:

The saints are like so many little mirrors in which Jesus Christ contemplates Himself.     In His apostles, He contemplates His zeal and His love for the salvation of souls.  In the martyrs, He contemplates His patience, His sufferings and His cruel death.  In the solitaries, He sees His obscure and hidden life.  In the virgins, He admires His stainless purity; and in all the saints, His boundless charity.  So, in admiring the virtues of the saints, we do nothing but admire the virtues of Jesus Christ [(158-159)].

     French:

Les saints sont comme autant de petits miroirs dans lesquels Jésus-Christ se contemple.  Dans ses apôtres, il contemple son zèle et son amour pour le salut des âmes; dans le martyrs, il contemple sa patience, ses souffrances et sa mort douloureuse; dans les solitaires, il voit sa vie obscure et chachée; dans les vierges, il admire sa pureté sans tache, et dans tous les saints sa charité sans borne; de sorte, M. F., qu’en admirant les vertus des saints, nous ne faisons qu’admirer les vertus de Jésus-Christ, vertus dont il nous a donné lui-même l’exemple pendant sa vie mortelle.

     St. John Vianney, On the cult of the saints and of the holy images, Second sermon for the Feast of All Saints, Sermons (Lyons:  1883), vol. 4, pp. 149-150.

"God does not look like himself; as perfect Being, he is himself and is thus an analogous world's single incapacity for simile."

George William Rutler, Saint John Vianney:  the Curé d'Ars today (San Francisco, CA:  Ignatius Press, 1988), 27.