The Traveling Bible

This is the story of how our family Bible came to be with me in San Diego, California.

I was born and raised in Chile. Our family Bible originally belonged to my mother’s family, the Serpells, who had lived in Cornwall, England. In about 1900, it left England and traveled around the Horn to Chile, where my parents lived and raised us children. The Bible weighs 15 pounds and is 14” x 11” x 4 ½.”

When I was a young woman, I came to the United States to live and work. I married, had a child, and settled in San Diego, California. When my mother died in Chile, she left her family Bible to me. My father’s family Bible had been left to one of my sisters. Since I was far away when my mother died, a nephew took the Bible for safekeeping. I was not able to travel to Chile to get the Bible for some time. When I went to Chile in 1999 to bring it back home to San Diego with me, the nephew did not want to give it up!

To make a long story short, I was able to retrieve the Bible, but only at the last minute through the help of a niece. Exactly one half hour before my flight was scheduled to depart from Chile, the Bible was delivered to me in a cardboard box with a string around it. There was no name on the box and no way of identifying what was in the box. It was too late to pack it. So, as I was checking my luggage, I set it on the counter in its box. The clerk asked, “What is it?” I answered, “the family Bible.” The clerk responded, “I’ll take care of it.”

I wasn’t sure I would ever see the family Bible again. But when I got to Miami, the airport attendant carefully handed me the box, still with its string but no name. The Bible and I had to go through customs. Again, I was asked the same questions and received the same responses. The Bible and I had to board a plane to San Diego, and again I had the box with me at the check-in counter. I was asked the same questions and gave the same responses. Once again, the airport attendant carefully took the box, still with its string and no name, and said the airline would take care of it for me. Lo and behold, when I arrived in San Diego, an airline attendant brought me the box and handed it to me very reverently.

I was very grateful to the airline personnel and was impressed to see how everyone treated this unlabeled, humbly wrapped package with its important contents.

Catherine Johnson was a member of St. Paul’s Cathedral in San Diego, California. She passed away on October 31st and her memorial will be on November 17 at 11am in the Chapel of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Rev Canon Andrew Rank SSP shared this story with us, which was first published in the Spring 2005 edition of St. Paul's Printer.