Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/538

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PARIS


488


PARIS


of French Monuments. Napoleon (20 Feb., 180.5) de- cided that the church should be restored, re-estab- lished worshii) there, and decreed that thenceforth St- Denis should be the burial-place of the eniperor.s. At the Restoration the tombs which had been removed to the iSIuseum of French .Mimumcnt.s were restored to St'Denis, but in such a disorderly fashion that Mon- talembert, in a discourse of 1847, called the Church of St. Denis "a museum of bric-a-brac " . A truly artistic restoration wjis accomplished finally (1847-79) by Viollet le Due.

Of the tlurty-two Capetian kings from Hugh Capet to Louis XV only tliree were buried elsewhere than in St-Denis. The series of authentic portraits of the kings of France at St-Denis opens with the sepulchral statue of Philip III the Bold (d. 1285). Until the six- tenth century the royal tombs at St-Denis maintained modest proportions, but in that century the church was filled with works of art. The monument of the Dukes of Orleans, erected by Louis XII, was the work of four Genoese sculptors; that of Louis XII (d. 1.515) and Anne of Brittany (d. 1514), is the work of the Juste family, Italian sculptors residing at Tours; the magnificent monument of Francis I and Claude of France is the work of the great architect Philibert Delorme and of the sculptor Pierre Bontemps ; that of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici, executed under the direction of Primatice, is admired for the sculp- tures of Germain Pilon. The only monument repre- senting the art of the seventeenth century is that of Turenne. The episcopal chapter of St-Denis, created by Napoleon I to care for the basilica, was composed of ten canons whose head was the grand almoner. The canons had to be former bishops more than fifty years of age. The Restoration created canons of a second order, who were not chosen from among the bishops, and the grand almoner received the title of primicier (dean) of the chapter. The empire and the Restora- tion claimed that this chajjter, which Napoleon had created without taking counsel with Rome, should not be subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary. This was the cause of conflict until 1846, when the pope is- sued a Bull placing the chapter of St-Germain under the direct supervision of the Holy See; the primate re- tained episcopal authority over the church and the house of the Legion of Honour annexed to the church, and the Archbishop of Paris had no spiritual jursidic- tion over either of these buildings. The budget for the chapter of St-Denis was suppressed by the State in 1888. The theologian Maret, famous for his writings against the opportuneness of the definition of infalli- bility, was the last primate.

Famous Pilgrimages. — (1) Tomb of St. Genevieve. — St. Genevieve is the patroness of Paris, but after the conversion of the church into a Pantheon of France's great men the saint had no church in Paris. Since 1803 her tomb has been at St-Etienne-du-Mont (built 1517-1020), the burial-place of Racine and Pascal. There Pius VII went to pray on 10 January, 1805, and it was the scene of the assassination of Archbishop Sibour on 3 January, 1857. The veneration of St. Genevieve is expressed in two feasts: (1) on her feast proper (3 January) and the following eight days a solemn novena takes place at St-Etienne-du-Mont and at the church of Nanterre, birthplace of St. Gene- vieve, whither Clotaire II, St. Louis, Blanche of Cas- tile, Louis XIII, and Ann(^ of Austria went to vener- ate her memorj': (2) on 20 November, anniversary of the miracle whereby, in 1 130, a procession of the relics of St. Genevieve cured many Parisians of the mal des ardenls (Miracle des ardcnl.s).

(2) Notre-Dame-des-Vicloires. — In consequence of the visions granted to Catherine Labour^ (who six months previously had become a member of the Sisters of Charity), M. Aladel, a.ssi.stant of the Lazarists, with the approval of Mgr deQu^^len, had struck the"mirac- ulous medal" of Mary Conceived without Sin, more


than 4,000,000 of which were distributed throughout the world within four years. In 1838 Desgenettes, pastor of N<itre-Dnmc-des-Victoires, organized in thai church the A.i.social ion in honour of the Holy and Im- maculate Heart of Mary, which Grcudiy X\ I made a confraternity on 24 April, 183S, and I lie li.iilgc of which was the miraculous medal. In virtue of another indult of Gregory X\'I (7 Dec, 183S) the Diocese of Paris received the right to transfer to the second Sun- day of Advent the solemnity of the feast of the Im- maculate Conception. On 10 July, 1894, Leo XIII granted to the Lazarists, and to the dioceses that should request it, the faculty of celebrating yearly on 27 November the manifestation of the Blessed Virgin through the miraculous medal. This feast was first celebrated at Paris in the chapel of Rue du Bac on 25, 26, and 27 November, 1894. On 27 July, 1897, the statue of the Blessed Virgin in this chapel was sol- emnly crowned in virtue of a Brief of Leo XIII (2 March, 1897). In 1899 the number of Masses cele- brated by foreign priests at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was 3031; the number of Communions, 110,000; in- tentions 1,305,980, or an average of 3578 per day.

(3) Montmarlre. — Prior to the ninth century there were two churches on the hill of Montmartre — one, half way up, stood on the traditional site of the mar- trydom of St. Denis, while the other, on the summit, was said to replace a temple dedicated to Mars. In 1095 these two churches became the property of a monastery occupied first (1095-1134) by the monks of St-Martin-des-Champs, and from 1034 to the Revolu- tion by the Benedictines. The church on the summit was rebuilt in the twelfth century, and consecrated on 21 April, 1147, by Pope Eugenius III with St. Ber- nard of Clairvaux as deacon, and Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, as subdeacon. Alexander III visited it in 1162; St. Thomas a Becket in 1170; St. Thomas Aquinas, Bl. Joan of Arc, St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, St. Vincent de Paul, Olier, and Blessed John Eudes prayed there. During the war of 1870-71 MM. Lcgentil and Roliuult de Fleury issued from Poitiers an appeal in behalf of the erection at Paris of a sanc- tuary to the Sacred Heart, to obtain the release of the pope and the salvation of France. On 23 July, 1873, the National Assembly passed a law declaring the con- struction of this sanctuary a matter of public utility. After a meeting in which seventy architects took part Abadie was charged with its construction, in Byzan- tine style. Cardinal Guibert laid the corner-stone on 16 June, 1875, and said the first Mass in the crypt on 21 April, 1881. Cardinal Richard blessed the church on 5 June, 1891, and on 17 October 1899, blessed the cross surmounting the main dome.

(4) Pilgrimage to the Church of St. Francis in honour of the famous Miracle des Bilkltes in 1290, when blood flowed from a Host which had been profaned by a Jew and Christ appeared above the receptacle where the Jew had thrown the Host.

(5) Pilgrimage to the chapel of the Picpus in honour of the statue of Notre-Dame-de-Paix which the fa- mous Capuchin Joyeuse, known as Pcre Ange, gave to his convent (sixteenth century).

(6) Pilgrimage of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus at the church of Aubervilliers (dating from 1336), whither Louis XIII, St. Ignatius, Blessed John Eudes, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul, St. John Bap- tist de la Salle, and Bossuet went to pray.

(7) Pilgrimage of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles at Saint-Maur, dating from the erection of a chapel of the Blessed Virgin by the Abbot St. Babolein about 640. The future Pope Martin IV, Philip Augustus, St. Louis, Emperor Charles IV of Germany, and Olier prayed there.

(8) Pilgrimage in honour of St. Vincent de Paul to the parish church of Clichy, built, by the saint.

Saints of Paris. — A number of saints are esjiecially connected with the history of the Diocese of Paris: Sts.