Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/536

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PARIS


486


PARIS


vent of St-Lazare within the confines of the parish. Here was buried Veneraljle Madame Le (iras, foun- dress of the Sisters of Charity. During the Revohi- tion it was given to the Theophilant liropists who made of it the "Temple of Hymen and Fidchty". With regard to Notre-Dame-des-Victoires see below under Famous Pilgrimages. St-Denys-de-la-Chapelle (thirteenth-century) stands where St. Genevieve and her companions rested, when they were making a pilgrimage from Paris to the tomb of St. Denis. Bl. Joan of Arc, who had come to besiege Paris, stopped here to pray.

Principal Chdrches on the Left Bank. — St- Nicholas-du-Chardonnet (1656-1758) is famous for the seminary which Bourdoise founded in the vicinity, for the Forty Hours preached there by St. Francis de Sales, and for the funeral oration of Lamoignon preached there by Fl^chier. St-Sulpice (1(346-1745) is famous for its pastor Olier (q. v.); in 1793 it was a temple of Victory, under the Directory it was used by the Theophilanthropists, and there Pius VII con- secrated che bishops of La Rochelle and Poitiers. To the architectural importance of St-Germain-des-Prcs was added in the nineteenth century the attrac- tion of Flandrin's frescoes. St-M(Sdard (fifteenth- sixteenth-century) became celebrated in the eight- eenth century owing to the sensation caused by the Jansenists with regard to the wonders wrought at the tomb of the deacon Paris. St-SiH'erin (four- teenth-fifteenth-centurj'), one of the most remarkable Gothic edifices of Paris, replaced an older church in which Foulques de Neuilly preached the fourth cru- sade in 1199; St. Vincent de Paul, Bossuet, Mas.sillon, Fl^chier, Lacordaire, and Ravignan preached in this church. Originally dedicated to St. Severinus, a Parisian hermit, who was buried there in 555, it was dedicated to St. Severinus of Agaune from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, and since 1753 has had both these saints as patrons. Ste-Clotilde (1846-61) was made a minor basilica on 19 April, 1897, at the time of the fourteenth centenary of Clovis. St- Lambert-de-Vaugirard had as pastor Olier, who founded the Society of St-Sulpice, and St. John Baptist de la Salle opened his first school in this parish; its name of Vaugirard {V'allis Gerardi) recalls the charitable Abbot of St-Germain-des-Pr6s, Gerard de Moret, who built dwellings for sick religious in the locality. The church of the Sorbonne, where religious services are no longer held, was begun in 1635, Richelieu laj-ing its foundation stone, and completed in 1646. Richelieu's tomb in this church was vio- lated during the Revolution; the cardinal's head, which was taken away on this occasion, was restored to this church in 1866. The chapel of Val-de-Grdce, a very beautiful specimen of the Jesuit style and famous for its cupola wherein Mignard has depicted the glory of the blessed, was built in fulfillment of a vow made by Anne of Austria. Mansart w;is its first architect, and the comer-stone was laid in 1645 by Louis XIV at the age of seven. Here was buried Henrietta of France, wife of Charles I of F^ngland, and here Bossuet preached the Lenten sermons of 1663. It is now the chapel of the Paris military hos- pital. The chapel of St-Loui.s-des-Invalides contains the tomb of Napoleon I. In the ciypt of the Church of St-Joseph-de.s-Carmes, built by the Carmelites between 1(513 and 1625 and now the church of the Institut Catholique, are the tomb of Ozanam and the remains of the 120 priests massacred in this church on 2 Sept., 1792, after fifteen days of captivity. In this crypt Lacordaire remained attaclied to a cross for three hours.

Principal Abbeys. — The Benedictine Abbey of St- Gennain-des-Prfe, the foundation and medieval splen- dour of which have been described above, was long famous for the fair which it held. During the seven- teenth century its important library made it a centre


of learning, and Luc d' Ach6rj', Mabillon, and Mont- faucon rendered it illustrious. Abb6 Prfivost, author of the famous romance "Manon Leseaut", was for a time a Benedictine at St-Germain-des-Pr6s, where he worked on "Gallia Christiana". John Ca.simir, first a Jesuit and later King of Poland, died as Abbot of St- Germain-des-Prds in 1672. The abbey prison was the scene of the September massacres in 1792.

The origin of the Abbey of St-Victor was a hermit- age, to which William of Champeaux (q. v.) retired in 1108. The abbey was founded by a royal charter in 1113, and had as first abbot Gilduin, confessor of Louis the Fat. The abbey gov(>rned the priories of Corbeil, Ch&teau-Laudon, I'^taniiH's, Mantes, Poissy, Dreux, and even the catlicilral nf Srcz. During the first century it was rendered illustrious by Richard of St-Victor, Hugh of St-Victor, and the liturgical poet, Adam of St-Victor. Grave abuses having crept into the Congregation of the Canons of St. Genevieve, Pope Eugenius III and Suger in 114S introduced the Canons Regular of St. Augustine from the Abbey of St-Victor. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth cen- tury the abbey passed through a period of decadence, and in 1498 two strange monks, John Standonck, rec- tor of the College of Montaigu, and John Monbaer of Windesheim near Zwolle, spent nine months at the abbey to effect its reform. With the sixteenth century began a series of commendatory abbots, one of whom, Antonio Caracciolo, became a Protestant. The canons of St-Victor took a very important part in the League. The first half of the seventeenth century was charac- terized by a conflict between Jean de Toulouse, prior of St-Victor, and the Gcnovefains; a decision of the official (28 June, 1645) declared St-Victor autonomous. Jansenism found its way into St-Victor, and was oom- batted by Simon Gourdan, who was persecuted. In the eighteenth century its library was celebrated, and was open to the pubhc three times a week. The librarian Mulot, who was also grand prior, published a transla- tion of "Daphnis and Chloe". The abbey's end was sad. When the Revolutionary commissaries ques- tioned the twenty-one religious present, only one, aged 81, affirmed his desire to remain; nine did not re- ply, eleven left the monastery, and the librarian Mu- lot became a deputy of the Legislative Assembly. The abbey was destroyed in November, 1798.

The early history of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris, is very obscure. In the second half of the fifth century the clergy of Paris erected at the instance of St. Genevieve in the village of Catulliacus where the saint was buried, a basilica, administered by a com- munity of monks. Pilgrims flocked thither, and, as early as 625, a charter of Clotaire II authorized the abbot to receive a legacy. Nevertheless, tradition re- gards Dagobert I (628-38) as the real founder. Ac- cording to Mabillon, Felibien, and M. Leon Levillain, he merely decorated and einhi'llishcd t lie already exist- ing basihca; according to Julian Ha vet, t his early basil- ica stood at the place called Saint-Denis-de-l' Entrde, west of the present church, and between 623 and 625 Dagobert founded the new abbey church, to which the reUcs were removed in 626. Whatever the solution of this problem, with which scholars have occupied themselves since the seventeenth century, Dagobert was the abbey's signal benefactor: the altar orna- ments, the tomb containing the body of St. Denis, the golden cross set with precious stones which stood beliind the high altar were the work of the gold- smith, St. Eligius (Kloi), the king's friend. Dagobert himself desired to be buried at Saint-Denis. At the instance of Abbot Fulrad (d. 7,S4) Pepin the Short had the abbey rebuilt, and here on 28 July, 754, Pope Ste])hen II solemnly administered the royal anoint- ment to Pepin, Queen Bertha, and their two sons, and consecrated an altar. The new edifice was dedicated on 24 Feb., 775, in the presence of Charlemagne. Hil- duin, who became abbot in 814, wrote the life of St.