Talking with Jamie Driver about St. Thérèse and Sacrifice Beads
Jamie Driver and her family have always had a devotion to St. Thérèse. When Jamie was growing up her grandmother did “girls groups and Little Flower groups with the church. She would always have girls over and we would make sacrifice beads. She would teach us. She always had all the supplies in her closet.” To begin with “they were just pony beads and string. Those were the very first ones I made when I was five and six. I was about ten and trying to save up for a toy and my dad was like, ‘Why don’t you start a business and share these with the world?’ I was like okay. I can make these sacrifice beads and I can make so many different options and be able to share St. Thérèse’s little way.”
Fast forward ten years and Jamie sells sacrifice beads in her online shop, Saintly Sacrifices. Alongside the classic original pony beads are more advanced, and very beautiful variations of wooden and glass beads. When the holes on the wooden beads are too small, her grandmother assists by making the holes larger in her wood craft shop. “She is still a big part of it and always there to help.” Recently Jamie has renamed her online Etsy shop from St. Thérèse’s Art Shop to Saintly Sacrifices and created a brand new website. The impetus for this change was Jamie’s desire to describe her goal with more clarity. “What are we doing, everyone that is using these beads? What are we striving for? We are trying to be saints.”
In terms of pure function, sacrifice beads are an abacus of good deeds. A bead slides back and forth on the string for each kindness or sacrifice. St. Thérèse's mom, St. Zelie, describes in a letter how her daughter would use her sacrifice beads: “Even Thérèse is anxious to make sacrifices. Marie has given her little sisters a string of beads on purpose to count their acts of self-denial. They have really spiritual, but very amusing conversations together...But it is more amusing still to see Thérèse put her hand in her pocket, time after time, to pull a bead along the string, whenever she makes a little sacrifice.”
Knowing that St. Thérèse experienced anxiety throughout her childhood, yet focused on these little deeds, was something Jamie could relate to and was keen to follow. “I was more of an anxious kid and reading about St. Thérèse as I was growing up. She went through this, too. She had a lot of sisters and so do I. It’s so cool to read her story, how she and her sisters would do the sacrifice beads together and how they all slowly entered the convent together. She was always really inspiring growing up. Getting to hear about her little way and being able to grow in our faith. Sometimes it can seem like a lot, like you have to do big things and there is so much you have to do. It’s like, no, you can do little things. That’s how you can share love and Christ’s love. ”
Jamie wears her wooden sacrifice beads on a bracelet, as do her grandmother, mom, younger sisters and friends. She shares her life-long craft with her customers. “I have been super blessed getting to share that little way, those sacrifices and good deeds throughout the day.”
The beauty of the concept of sacrifice beads and a business like Saintly Sacrifices is that it is literally putting love and goodness out into the world – one bead at a time.