The Saint Glinglin

More than a chronicle, it's a story that I want to share on this day after All Saints, a memory of my years of law in Assas.

In civil law classes, we had this judgment from the Lyon Court of Appeal, which I love and which I am telling you about here. A man, dishonest, but still an unsuspected cheat, starts going to church every Sunday and crying, crying, crying.

In this wealthy suburb of the city of Lyon, little ladies go to see him and listen to his story. His sick mother has to have an operation, he has no money. Touched, the pious Catholics lend him money one by one against an IOU which he signs seriously and which they keep preciously.

The years pass, the money is not repaid and the little ladies die, one by one. The heirs then find these acknowledgments of debt, which they discover with surprise at the end of the Saint Glin-Glin. Official signed document, this repayment date never arrives and a collective is formed to sue this malicious thug.

Dismissed at first instance, the Court of Appeal ruled with intelligence and humor that the acknowledgment of debt will come to an end on All Saints' Day, since this first November cheerfully includes all the saints, including Saint Glin-Glin.

The judgment will stipulate, and I quote “Whereas the Saint-Glinglin does not appear in the calendar, but that there exists on the date of November 1st a collective feast of all the saints who could not find a place there; Whereas, consequently, it is necessary to fix the date of Saint Glinglin on November 1st.

For these reasons, contradictorily and as a last resort, condemns the debtor to pay the amount claimed before November 1st. »
It's magic isn't it? A creative justice, who would have believed it... So on this day after the vigil of the dead, think of your deceased, and don't forget that everything has an end, even the saint glin-glin, itself postponed to Greek calends, the week of four Thursdays, the week of three Sundays, every 36th of the month or of course… when our hens have teeth…