The Club

The St. Helena's Cigar Club, now known as the St. Helena's OLG Cigar Club, was the brainchild of Fr. James Farfaglia, erstwhile pastor of St. Helena's parish, and current pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The members get together every Monday to share food, cigars, drink, and good quantity of good old-fashioned Christian fellowship.  There is no formal agenda.  There are no real rules.  There are no real mottos.  An informal motto was suggested by the founder, Fr. James: "St. Pius X, smoke for us."  The Latinophile in the group insists in a more formal motto: consociata voluntas per bacilla nicotiana, which means, roughly, "solidarity through cigars."  To accommodate those of more evangelical nature, he has offered as an alternative "Sive ergo manducatis sive bibitis sive fumatis vel aliud facitis omnia in gloriam Dei facite," which is an extension of 1 Cor. 10:31:  "Whether you eat or drink or smoke, in whatever you do, do all for the glory of God."  There is no process for resolving this problem, and so it will probably never be resolved.  It is good that some things never get resolved, so long as those things that ought to be resolved are resolved.  The motto of the club is one thing that does not need resolving.

One of the group's real heroes is, of course, G. K. Chesterton.  While G. K. Chesterton is good, as of yet he is not beatified or canonized, and so he would not be good as a patron.  We have therefore pretty much by acclamation or custom regarded Pope St. Pius X, the cigar-smoking pope, as our heavenly patron.

The club is contemplating a very informal type of club habit, a guayabera.  This habit is both practical and symbolic.  It is symbolic of the Latin American / Hispanic background of many of the club's members.  There is also the tie of the Guayabera, a cuban outfit, with arguably the Mecca of all cigars, Cuba.  It is, moreover, quite practical in light of the fact that Corpus Christi has (understatedly) rather hot weather. 

We have a badge, some marketing, and some funny signs.  Oh, and we also have a Facebook page.  Beyond that we don't have much else.

St. Helena OLG Unofficial Seal

Our only marketing device other than word of mouth

A funny sign for the hell of it

The club has a joke.  A Jesuit was asked whether it was licit to smoke a cigar while praying, and his answer was an unequivocal "no."  However, the subtle Jesuit quickly added that, while it was not licit to smoke a cigar while praying, it was perfectly licit to pray while smoking a cigar.  There is a very nuanced difference, and our group is still trying to figure that one out.