You Can't Run From God

Being in France, I just can't get enough of religion.

Or the debates that come with it in class, or the opportunities to pray in any of the various churches, and so on.

Yesterday on the Sabbath, as promised, I got out of bed before 10 o'clock just to go listen to a whole lot of french intended to praise God in a pop-culturally noted church. The very church in which the scary albino man in DaVinci Code whipped himself is the one in which I attended mass.

Strangely enough I found it incredibly less horrifying than Notre Dame.

St. Sulpice.

Its exterior architecture was very similar to that of Notre Dame's though undoubtedly less intricate. It has the two very identifiable towers like Notre Dame, yet the church itself is slightly smaller. There's no denying this cathedral is also quite massive compared to average churches we are used to in the States.

I guess I should mention "this place" is The Cathedral of Saint Sulpice. Much less recognized, but nonetheless historical. It is another church built during Louis XIV's reign.


Man, did he get around...

So anyway, among one of its largest claims to fame is the massive organ that it is home to; you can literally walk inside of it.

The interesting thing I found about this organ is the fact that, though it is absolutely immense, it plays much more calming, soothing, spiritual music than that of the mean mama in Notre Dame. In this case, the organ is the savage beast who purrs rather than growls.

But that's not where the intrigue stops!

Among the parishioners, I think about more than 85% were grandparents, at least once so far. The only reason this was so shocking was because there was some sort of art exhibition taking place inside the church that was borderline sacrilegious.

In my Catholic education, this is intolerable.
I guess in the age of political proprieties and
improprieties, you can't knock a black faced Mary.

I'm talking a sort defamation  of statues of the Virgin Mother not so far off from the way the Virgin Mary was vandalized in The Exorcist.

I mean that in the most artistically speaking point of view I could provide... I'm not as well versed in art as I am in movies, so I don't really want to tie this church in with the scariest movie all time, I'm just saying... I've never seen something like this before.

So mass was normal. French and whatnot.

After mass, we had the opportunity to tour the massive organ. More swirly stairs, like literally every building in Paris, lead up to the choir loft, the organ, and a balcony view of the entire church.

Very beautiful, very long, very cold. Typical Gothic church (not to imply typical in this sense is synonymous with unexceptional), within walking distance of my dorm. It still shocks me that such historical structures are utilized modernly today just as they were in the 18th century.

In New York, this many churches would have been knocked down for apartment complexes and mosques. From an American point of view, there's simply an excess of Catholicism in France.

To support this claim, I present another very famous church in France, perched atop the highest point of the city in Montmarte. This town, translated into English, is literally Martyr's Mountain.

Now there's a story!

As the legend goes, the very ballsy St. Denis traveled with Catholic preachings from Rome into the Pagan Paris. Upsetting those unwilling to waver under the pressure of Catholicism, his head was chopped off.

A little beheading is never enough to stop a Catholic on a mission! He picked up his head, dusted it off, and let it preach the word of God for another 10 kilometers.

Now, I know it's easy to believe he literally carried his own head, but let's use ours that are still attached to our shoulders; this is a story. It proves that the religion is not so easily defeated. And if you want to believe it, the head is still talking today!

I have pictures looking up Mount Olympus, but it's too pretty
to not look at it up close and personal. La Basilique du Sacre Coeur.

They erected a church atop this Montmarte, of immaculately white stone and that is constantly in session. The word of God is still getting out there for those who will listen to it. That's at least my own way of reading between these tightly condensed Catholic lines.

This is my favorite church in Paris so far. Maybe because I sweat my ass off and had to carry it in my hands up this gigantic hill and worked off a week's worth of baguettes. Or it's because it is just gorgeous.

Surprisingly enough, this isn't St. Denis' own cathedral though. I don't really know why the poor guy couldn't get such a top spot in the city after literally being a beheaded martyr. But he does have a cathedral in the northern part of the city (which I'm praying we get to go to) which is appropriately home to monuments of some of his other infamously beheaded counterparts: King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.