Herb farm cultivates couple's Catholic faith

Combermere business owners want to promote their pro-life ethics

- WCR photo by Deborah Gyapong Herbal purveyor Jeremy Rivett-Carnac of St. Francis Herbs believes in a pro-life approach to all aspects of life.

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Combermere, Ont.

St. Francis Herb Farm owners Jeremy and Monique Rivett-Carnac share a passion for promoting the healing properties of herbs. As devout Catholics, they realize their message is "as countercultural as you can get.

But they are determined to reach Christian consumers because they see their mission as pro-life.

Pro-life is a life-long process of proper stewardship that does not stop once the children are born, Jeremy said. "We have been brought up in a culture over the last 80 years where if we have a headache we take a pill. I don't want this baby; I take a pill. It's the same pro-death consciousness."

A place for herbs

While Jeremy acknowledges nothing beats modern Western medicine in dealing with acute and life-threatening disease, he says herbal medicine shines in disease prevention and the treatment of chronic illness.

He compares the way some Canadians pop pills to treat symptoms to the way some Catholics repeatedly confess the same sins over and over as a "fire insurance policy" without going deeper in their faith and reforming their lives.

St. Francis Herb Farm operates out of a small, spotless low-tech factory just down the road from Madonna House, the lay apostolate established by Catherine Doherty in 1947.

The Rivett-Carnacs have based their business on her principles. Jeremy said they have never compromised on the quality of their 175 products, nor do they sell "flash products" that could make them a lot of money but don't promote health. Their company employs 16 full-time and three part-time workers in an economically depressed region.

St. Francis is one of the few small companies left in a business of "ferocious" competition. They have suffered because they are Catholics, even for having "St. Francis" in their company name, said Monique. They depend on prayer and on "God supplying the right connections."

Those "right connections" and prayer played a role from the beginning, even though neither was a Christian when they met.

Monique grew up Catholic in Quebec, but left the faith at age 13 when the Quiet Revolution swept the province. It seemed to her that overnight, as "the nuns threw off their habits," her entire village left the Church.

New beginnings

A fall off a cliff while tree-planting near Port Alberni, B.C., marked the beginning of her interest in herbs. She had broken her leg, so she started investigating ways to promote faster healing. Soon she was taking courses on herbs and then teaching them.

In 1980, Jeremy took one of her courses at a health food store in Victoria. They agreed it was "love at first sight."

Born on Vancouver Island, Jeremy had grown up a nominal Anglican who attended many other churches. His interest in herbs began while he was working as a land surveyor. It intrigued him so many plants he recognized trekking through the woods could be used for healing.

The couple's mutual interest in herbs led to long hikes where they would harvest wild herbs in a method called "wildcrafting" that disturbed the wild plants as little as possible. They began to grow herbs and sell them.

The Rivett-Carnacs had also become involved in an Eastern religion. They practised meditation two hours a day and ate a strict vegan diet - no animal products at all. They would meet for satsang - a time of teaching and fellowship - with like believers on Sunday afternoons.

They had even been to India to visit their guru and become leaders of their local group.

Her involvement with herbs and non-Catholic spirituality prompted Monique's uncle, Father Gerard Faivre, a missionary priest with the White Father of Africa to affectionately call her "the Green Witch."

He used to annoy her by telling her that Jesus loved her.

When her uncle planned a visit to B.C., Monique went in search of a nearby Catholic Church he could attend. With her two young sons in the car, she drove by a church she had never noticed before. On a "great big blue and white sign" were the words "Come back home." Monique said it was "like someone threw an arrow and hit me in the heart."

She insisted on meeting the priest, who was on his day off. But he happened to be listening to her request from the other side of the door. Before she left, he blessed her with holy water. "The holy water burned on my forehead," she said.

That visit led to her start attending Mass. She no longer wanted to attend satsang and a rift was developing between her and her husband.

One Sunday, obviously upset, Jeremy left for satsang without her.

Answered prayer

Alone in the trailer, Monique put her hands up and prayed, "If there's a God, please help me." Within minutes, the phone rang. A Catholic couple from Missouri was calling wanting to buy herbs in bulk from them.

Then one of them said, "Jesus loves you and the Blessed Mother wants you to know her son personally."

Shocked, because never had she mentioned her spiritual quest to them, Monique took this as a sign. She said it marked "the beginning of God's anointing of their business."

Monique also credits the prayers of her uncle. For eight years, he would place a picture of her and her son Paul on the altar while he celebrated Mass and pray for them.

"It took one man, a priest, that many prayers to bring me back to Church."

In 1988, not long after Monique's conversion, the Rivett-Carnacs bought some land in Cormac, Ont., that they named St. Francis Herb Farm.

While they established their business, Monique met Father Jim Duffy at Madonna House, about an hour's drive from Cormac.

He asked her to renounce her past spiritual involvement and she did.

Jeremy, however, had no interest in the Catholic Church. But the priest asked for a meeting with Jeremy and he joined him in a narrow basement room, not knowing what to expect.

When the priest confronted Jeremy, he was taken by such surprise he agreed to renounce his Eastern beliefs. In addition, he resaid his baptismal vows.

"I left that room completely bewildered," Jeremy said, experiencing a strange loss of identity. "I didn't know what hit me."

He was advised to start reading Scripture. Several months later, he was received into the Catholic Church. Nine years ago, the Rivett-Carnacs sold the farm and built the facility in Combermere.

Their products sell across Canada in health food stores and directly to naturopathic doctors.They are launching a mail order business soon via their website www.stfrancisherbfarm.com.

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