The town of St. Martinville will be the host of a public reading of the Bible from cover to cover starting today. Fete-Dieue du Teche will be hosting the Bible Marathon today through Sunday in the town’s square Father Michael Champagne says the event was inspired by a similar event once done by the Pope.
“This is going to be our third time doing it, we do nonstop bible reading and it takes us 100 hours. We have 300 lectors from around the Acadiana area, including Catholics, Evangelicals, Baptists, and Episcopalians.
The event drew thousands last year, both locals and people passing through the area. Champagne describes it as the Woodstock of Bible reading.
“To read it cover to cover in the context and to hear it being read in the square is just phenomenal. What we do is we have speakers set up, a stage, it is highly organized.”
During the four days of continuous reading, 300 lectors will read in 20-minute increments. Champagne says the event is intended to re-ignite a love for scripture and says the atmosphere is very festive.
“So it’s an annual kind of festival de poireaux you know you have festivals for crawfish festival, pepper festival here but we kind of put this out as the festival de la poireaux, the feast of the word, the word of God.”
