We started visiting Paris’s many historic churches by attending the Palm Sunday service at Notre Dame. It was an extra special, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The cathedral was full of people, standing room only. Communion was conducted by forming a long train of people filing past the priest for the bread. People standing outside watched the service on a giant screen and were permitted to join the train to take part in the holy sacrament.
Since then, we have visited all the most important churches, most of which curiously contain a relic (part of a deceased Holy person’s body). Really?? Here’s just a few notes about some of them,
In the small chapel of St. Etiene-du-Mont next to thr Pantheon, there is the finger bone of St. Genevieve, Christ’s Crown of Thorns is in Notre Dame; the leg bone of Mary Magdalene is under glass at La Madeleine, and the heart of St. Denis is on display at the Basilique Saint-Denis. There are probably more.
When I read the story of the Crown of Thorns relic that was first housed at the Sante Chapelle, (the 13th century chapel of the king residing at the Palais de la Cite), then ultimately moved to Notre Dame, I said, I’m not sure I buy that story.
As the story is told, the crown, a circular band of branches encased in gilded gold, was first mentioned in the 5th century before it was given to Constantinople, then, because Constantinople needed money to repay its war debt, it was given to King Louis IX, who passed it along to Notre Dame. It was saved in the 2019 fire and transferred to the Sainte-Chapelle for safekeeping. It is claimed that the crown has been DNA tested, and it is authentic. Science or no science, the story sounds far-fetched to me.
We have seen so many churches! They are all works of art, astounding architecture, and are filled with history, legend, and grandeur, all in worship of God. While they showcase and preserve artists’ depictions of Christ and his disciples’ lives, they also provide an example of the opulence that kings and churches were not hesitant to create and show off. As they did with palaces, each new king or bishop left his mark, adding another highly carved and gilded hall, more glass, or more paintings and statues to the Basilica or cathedral. No wonder there was a French Revolution. The hungry people eventually had enough. They stormed the Bastille, where revolutionaries were being held. They burned churches and palaces. They blamed rich churches and royalty. Let them eat cake, she said. They responded, We will have your head. And they did. Marie Antoinette’s ashes, as well as those of her husband, King Louis XVI, are entombed at the Basilica de Saint Denis in a northern suburb of Paris.
