RETURN OF THE RING

The improbable story of how — and where — Bishop Mark’s lost ring was found

This is the photo that many Evangelist readers have probably seen on social media: Father Rendell Torres holding Bishop Mark’s ring after he found it in an Utz potato chip bag. (Photo courtesy of Bishop Mark O’Connell)

This is the story of a bishop, his ring and a potato chip bag.

Our tale begins over two months ago, with Bishop Mark O’Connell — our very Bishop of Albany — washing his dishes after a meal at the rectory next to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

“I was finishing dinner — I cook my own dinner — so I must have washed my hands and (the ring) gets loose,” he told The Evangelist. “I looked down at my finger, there’s no ring. So I carefully searched everywhere in the kitchen, including the garbage disposal and the trash. I went through everything and then I went into the pantry, I looked in the pantry. I looked everywhere, I could not find it. I then searched my room and hoped it would show up.”

Like any bishop’s ring, it carries a lot of meaning for Bishop Mark.

“It’s gold. It has St. Andrew, my saint on it, and it has my motto (‘Invenimus Messiam’). It was made by the father of a personal friend. He was a goldsmith in Italy and it was gifted to me right after my ordination as a bishop,” he said. “Inside, it has my name and the date I was ordained a bishop. So it’s very special to me and I wear it all the time.

“After a few days of it not showing up I realized, ‘OK, I lost my ring and someday it may show up.’ ”

While awaiting on providence, Bishop Mark went to see Amy Brozio-Andrews, the archivist for the Diocese of Albany, on May 6.

“I went to the archives and asked if they had any bishop’s rings and she had nine of them, so I wore an unidentified bishop’s ring. We don’t know whose it was, but I wore a past Bishop of Albany’s ring for over a month,” he said.

While still hoping — and praying — for the ring’s return, Bishop Mark presided over a confirmation where he was asked about the ring he was now wearing, that of an unnamed Bishop of Albany.

“At the confirmation, somebody asked about my ring and I said, ‘I’m wearing the ring of a deceased bishop. I don’t know whose it is because I lost my ring,’ ” he said. “After that conversation, this woman comes up to me and she says, ‘I told my mother about the ring and she wants to know if you went down to the crypt.’ Yeah, I went down to the crypt and took it off the finger.” 

“No, I didn’t!” he added with a laugh.”

If you were wondering when the potato chip bag was going to enter into our story, you don’t have to wait any longer. Father Rendell Torres, former rector of the Cathedral — who you might characterize as the hero of this story — texted Bishop Mark with some great, although absurd news on June 12.

“He had reached in for a potato chip, the Utz potato chips that had been there for a month and a half open, and there was my ring like a Cracker Jack prize,” Bishop Mark said. “If I had gone to the pantry, I would have known that’s  a really old bag of chips and I would have thrown them out, so it’s quite lucky that the ring is not in the dump in the ­potato chip bag.

“I had given up. I had a trip to Rome and was planning on buying a new ring there (or) getting one made, perhaps the same one. I had totally given up and there it was.”

Although Bishop Mark now happily has his ring back in his possession and on his right ring finger, he said perhaps an early dismissal about St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, may have prolonged its return.

“Everyone asks about St. Anthony,” he said. “I think I perhaps disrespected Anthony early in this because in that same group that asked about the ring (at the confirmation), they asked about St. Anthony and I said, ‘Well, Anthony can’t find everything because he can’t find my golf ball.’ So perhaps I disrespected Anthony, but he came through in the end because I did pray to him.”

So the moral of the story is to always pray to St. Anthony and always, always look into a potato chip bag before you throw it out.