Sunday, June 24, 2018

Inside la Madeleine

I certainly wasn't the only tourist to enter the church of la Madeleine on that Sunday morning. I was surprised to find a service going on inside. I'm not Catholic, but it didn't seem like a mass to me. Just a priest (I assume) standing at a lectern off to the side of the main altar. And he was speaking in French, not Latin, with many references to Jesus, of course. The sound wasn't great and I didn't really focus on what he was saying. Maybe it was just a general, non-denominational service. Do they do that kind of thing?

You can see the priest under the angel statue on the right side of the altar.

I was also not the only tourist taking photos while the service was going on. I hope I was among the more discreet. The interior is vast, but the Madeleine is not a cathedral, nor is it a soaring gothic construction. It's just a church, but it's a big one. The building's neoclassical architecture is on full display inside, notably in the corinthian and ionic columns, the ornate entablatures, and the triangular pediments.

A woman lit a candle and, I assume, said a prayer. I imagine that's a statue of Mary, the church's namesake, in front of the purple screen.

I finished my snapshots quickly and went back outside. I decided to walk around the terraces of the church and see what the exterior looked like up close.

11 comments:

  1. The one and only time I was inside the église de la Madeleine was in late october 1949, with my mother, for a memorial concert for the one hundreth anniversary of Frédéric Chopin’s funeral in that same church with the same music, Mozart’s Requiem.

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    1. I just noticed the interesting statue of Joan of Arc by Raoul Larche (1860-1912) [far left on the second photo].

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    2. I would have been four years old at that concert. I'm glad your mother took you there for such a good memory, CHM. Thanks for pointing out the statue, too.

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    3. Lol Evelyn. I was twenty five years old at the time and I think it is the reverse, it’s me who took my mother to that concert! She was a very good pianist and loved Chopin.

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    4. Oh yes- now I understand, you were a grown man then and took your mother to the concert. I'm sure she was pleased.

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  2. They speak French during mass. It's only the rebellious conservatives that tried to maintain Latin about 30 years ago.

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  3. oui, la messe est en français et le prêtre qui parle, "fait un sermon" : enseignement ou commentaire des textes du jour (dans la religion catholique il y a des textes religieux prévus pour chaque jour de l'année)
    amicalement

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  4. Holy S... well, holy moly! That is stunning. (But now I have a craving for madeleines.)

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  5. It's difficult to imagine anyone conceiving of a building like this. It's just SO over the top.

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  6. chm, it seems that they like having musicians' funerals here. Johnny Halliday was the latest to "appear" here!

    ellen, ah, ok. I am so not a Catholic that I once put a cigarette out in the holy water font when entering a church for a wedding. It looked like an ashtray! In my defence, it was a very modern church building...

    chistiane, merci de vos précisions !

    mitch, hehe...

    judy, have you been inside? It's quite impressive. It must have cost an awful lot!

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