If you wander round a church you may notice that most of the saints look a bit woebegone, distracted or plain miserable, often with good cause, many of them met rather nasty ends.
Not so Saint Medardus, no; Saint Medardus is often portrayed as smiling with his mouth wide open. Perhaps his happy demeanour can be put down to the eagle which sheltered him from rain when he was a child. Certainly it is claimed that whatever the weather is on June 8th it will remain so for forty days unless the weather changes on St Barnabas (11th June).
Annually at Salency in France in a tradition said to be founded by the saint himself, "the most virtuous young girl of the year" is elected the Rosière. The Rosière attends Mass accompanied by 12 young girls dressed in white and 12 young boys. After vespers, accompanied by two godmothers, she is crowned with a crown of 12 roses at the chapel of St Médard. She then receives a bouquet of roses from the mayor, who also presents her with two arrows, two tennis balls and a whistle. She blows the whistle three times and throws nuts to the assembled crowd. Ahhh, but you want to know why she is given the arrows and tennis balls – so do I.