Praxiteles

St Seurin, Bordeaux

The south elevation: here we have a glimpse of the south transept with its octagonal tower on a square base.

On St Seurin, Bordeaux

Basilica of Saint-Seurin, the most ancient church in Bordeaux. It was built in the early 6th century on the site of a palaeochristian necropolis. It has an 11th century portico, while the apse and transept are from the following century. The 13th century nave has chapels from the 11th and the 14th centuries. The ancient crypt houses sepulchres of the Merovingian family

St Seurin, Bordeaux

Some other capitals from the romanesque west atrium

The Abraham capital

a. God staying the hand of Abraham
b. Isaac on the altar of sacrifice
c. The ram cought in the thorns

Johnglas, commenting recently on the Benedictine liturgical reform, mentioned that what had been undone could again be done were the current liturgical renewal to take root. Perhaps that may well be so if the following pictures from St. Paul’s, Belfast are anything to gho by. They represent a Mass celebrated there in the usus antiquior on 15 August 2008 with the resumption of the use of the original sancturay fittings dating from th 1930.

Concerning the altar furnishings Praxiteles was sent the following: “Special mention should be made of the efforts of the MC and his team to recreate the Liturgical Movement style of Altar arrangements as designed by Mr Padraig Gregory, the architect who installed the original Sanctuary and side altars in St Paul’s in 1939. Gregory’s use of mosaic, marble revetments and not to mention the baldachino and ‘liturgical’ altar could once be seen in many of his churches in the Northern Irish Dioceses. His clean and attractive designs extended even to the altar furnishings and sanctuary appointments, and here can be seen in the very altar candlesticks and altar cards, with a complimenting 1930’s cloth-of-silver set of Marian Vestments”.

And, I am sure that in coming up with something quite so tasteful, P. Gregory did not have the benefit of a short course at the Chicago Theological Institute!

If the Benedictine renewal can reach Belfast, it can reach almost anywhere.

I wonder if our liturgical consultant in those parts of the globe has any comments.

St Eloi, Bordeaux

Some of the side altars – here, unlike Cobh Cathedral, the side altars are properly dressed and covered with dust cloths.

And and few further details of the “historique” of the re-opening of St. Eloi:

http://www.eloi.asso.fr/menu5.asp?nav=1

The case of St Eloi in Bordeaux is of importance from several perspectives not least amongh which the prinicples of its restauration which was conducted under M. Goutal, the Architect en Chef of the Monuments Historiques in the City of Bordeaux – whose services could well be employed by several entities in Ireland including the OPW and the nitwits now submerged by the failed “restoration” of Cobh Cathedral. Indeed, the latest agréé of the Cobh flop, Southgate Conservation Architects, could well have a quiet word with him also.

St Eloi was originally built in 1159 in honour of St Eloi (588-659) metal worker, bishop and counsellor to Dagobert, the merovingian king of France, patron saint of goldsmiths and metal workers. When the city wall fell on the church in 1245, it was rebuilt in the gothic style, the first gothic church to have been built in Bordeaux. Further work continued in the 14 and 15 centuries and the new church was finally consecrated in 1497 by the Cardinal d’Espinay. The church was wrecked during the revolution and lost all of its fine medieval glass. Restoration began in 1828 under Potevin who gave the church its present neo-gothic facade.

The church functioned regularly until 1981 when it was effectively abandoned -partly because of urban decay and the demographic changes in this particular quartier of the city. In 1983 an Association of Concerned Persons was formed to ensure the survival of the church. In 1986 this association raised enough funds to reroof the church and consolidate the bell tower. The decline of population in the parish meant that the church continued not to function, though it had never ceased officially as a place of worship. Efforts to reestablish worship met with little interest from the themn Archbishop. In 1993 the church became a repository for the municipal archives of Bordeaux. Further efforts to revive worship in St Eloi came to nothing. Given the lack of official interest, the then Mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppé. gave the church to the Association on condition that it would attend to the internal restoration of the building and re-animate it. This was part of a programme of urban regeneration in the quartier.

The Association underttook the restoration under the dirrection of M. Goutal. In 2002, the Association invited some members of the Society of St. Pius X to take charge of the churcheand to resume publoic worship. This began in March 2002. In the meantime, the members of the Society of St. Pius X were reconciled with Rome and the parish of St Eloi was formally committed to them by the present Archbishop – thereby peaceably bringing to an end two concurrent problems and giving rise to a very vibrant young parish which is committed to further restoration of the interior of the building.

St Eloi, Bordeaux

The Organ case and a detail of the 19th century iron work of the altar rail.

Some shots of an interesting medieval chuech in Bordeaux: ST Eloi. Built in the 12 century and substantially rebulit in the 14th century, it exhibits all the traits of its historical evolution -the most notable one being the non alignment of the 14century chancel with the surviving parts of the 12 century nave. The church stands at the Grasse Cloche of Bordeauz and remaine the pivotal to the lagal life of Bordeaux until 1790. It was here that all oaths were sworn and magistrates installed.

The church has a highly important early octagonal bell tower.

The interior has a fine 17/18 century High ALtar – mercifully intact and in regular use. Th iron work of the altar rail is early 19th century.