Jack Kerouac's Miraculous Medal, With Estate Provenance

Jack Kerouac's Gold toned Miraculous Medal. Raised relief along the left edge of "Maria Concepta Sine Peccato Ora" with the details shown below: The Front Side Mary stands on a globe, crushing a serpent beneath her feet. Describing the original vision, Catherine said the Blessed Mother appeared radiant as a sunrise, "in all her perfect beauty." Rays shoot out from Mary's hands, which she told Catherine, "... symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them." Words from the vision form an oval frame around Mary: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The Reverse Side A cross-and-bar surmounts a large, bold "M." 12 stars disperse around the perimeter. Two hearts are depicted underneath the "M," the left lapped with a crown of thorns, the right skewed by a sword. From each, a flame emanates from the top. This medal is also referred to as "The Miraculous Medal", also known as the "Medal of Our Lady of Grace", It is a devotional medal, the design of which was originated by Saint Catherine Laboure following her apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the use of sacramentals such as this medal prepares people to receive grace and disposes them to cooperate with it.

Provenance: The piece will be accompanied by an estate certification signed by John Shen-Sampas, executor of the Kerouac Estate. John Shen-Sampas is the son of John Sampas, who was the brother-in-law of Jack Kerouac, and the brother of Stella Kerouac, Jack's wife.

Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of immigrants from Quebec; on his mother’s side. Kerouac considered moving to Montreal with his mother. This piece may have been passed down in his family as we believe it to have come from Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine on Mount Royal's Westmount Summit in Montreal, Quebec. It is a National Historic Site of Canada and is Canada's largest church with one of the largest church domes in the world. St. Joseph's Oratory is a pilgrimage site for Catholics with some dropping to their knees to climb 99 of St. Joseph's Oratory's 283 stairs in prayer. Kerouac was raised as a Catholic by devout parents who had come to New England from French-Canada. Gabrielle Kerouac—Jack’s mother—matched Leo’s (father) civic pride with a fervent religious faith. According to Kerouac, "'On the Road' was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him. I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way." At the core of “On the Road,” and at the heart of all his work, is the Catholic and Beat insistence upon an underlying spirituality that inhabits all creation. Kerouac saw the world, and everything in it, as Holy. In his view, all experience was an opportunity to, as Wordsworth put it, “see into the life of things.” As Sal Paradise (Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty and all the other rogues, misfits and castaways of “On the Road” go tearing about the country in a wild ecstasy, their adventures of reckless abandon really become inquiries into what are the real values, truths and myths of America. What they expose is "phonyand sad". What they discover, at times, even amidst their youthfulhedonism, is an idealismand a spirituality that endures not because of modern Americabutinspiteof it.“TheCatholicChurch isaweird church,” Jacklater wrotetohisfriendandmuse Neal Cassady. “Muchmysticism is sownbroad spreadfrom its ritual mysteries till it extends intothe very lives of its constituents and parishioners.” It is impossible to overstate the influence of Catholicism on all of Kerouac’s work, save perhaps those books written during his Buddhist period in the mid-to-late 1950s. The influence is so obvious and so pervasive, in fact, that Kerouac became justifiably incensed when Ted Berrigan of the "Paris Review" asked during a 1968 interview, “How come you never write about Jesus?” Kerouac’s reply: “I’ve never written about Jesus? … You’re an insane phony … All I write about is Jesus.”

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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