Tante Arie and Marion

One of the SchweizerCraft "Companions of Christmas" series (#XmasF 15)

Plenty of livestock was present when Jesus was born in a stable, including a donkey who was the first animal to acknowledge the baby’s divinity, bowing down at his cradle and thereafter affixing herself to the Holy Family.

The donkey was protective of baby Jesus and would so rarely leave his side, and since she was like a second, assanine (in the literal sense) mother to him, she came to be jokingly called “Miryaa,” which means “Little Mirya/Mary” (Mary being Jesus’s actual human mom).

She was present during many episodes in Jesus’s life, including carrying him to Egypt to flee the assassins sent by King Herod the Great and staying behind at the temple to guard him in his boyhood disputation with the doctors. And although she was too old to bear the weight of a full-grown man by the time Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, she trotted alongside the foal that her Lord rode in her place, braying feedback to the foal on his performance all the way.

After Jesus died, returned, and ascended to heaven, the donkey stayed with his friend & disciple Peter, accompanying the saint on many journeys. But as Miryaa neared the end of her natural life, she presented the church leaders with a theological head-scratcher: can donkeys go to heaven?

St. James argued that of COURSE Miryaa would go to heaven, considering her acknowledgment of Jesus’s divinity and lifelong devotion to him. St. Paul argued that salvation required the ability to reason, and that donkeys were thus ineligible. St. Peter listened to both of them, and said that since they couldn’t be completely certain of Miryaa’s place in heaven, they simply couldn’t let her die. And so they solicited a miracle, asking God to grant the donkey eternal earthly life.

Over the centuries, the immortal Miryaa made her way across the Roman world, from Palestine to Gaul, caring for children along the way as she had once cared for little Jesus. And, in the mountains of Franche-Comté on the French/Swiss border, she encountered a fairy. This fairy, who folks called Tante (auntie) Arie, would commission the industrious and crafty local Lutin (think elves or leprechauns, but French) to make toys for the children of Besontio and Mons Beliardae, which she would give out as rewards for good behavior.

But Tante Arie was very small, and she struggled under the weight of the toys. Fairies can, of course, talk to Donkeys, and Miryaa (pronounced “Marion” in France) was so taken by Tante Arie’s mission that she offered to help carry the burden.

Marion found so much joy and purpose in the endeavor that the two have been a team ever since, carrying presents through the border mountains, and children there know to run out to greet the duo whenever they hear Tante Arie ringing her bell to announce their arrival.

1/4” Baltic Birch, roughly 3.35” tall

This figure can be purchased individually here, or with the 25-figure Advent Collection.

Figure comes with a 2.75 x 8.5” card telling their story. The card fits in the story shelf on the Santa’s Workshop DisPlayset.