St-Germain-des-Pres et St-Sulpice

St. Germain of Paris, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, was the "Bishop of Paris; born near Autun, Saône-et-Loire, c. 496; died at Paris, 28 May, 576. He studied at Avalon and also at Luzy under the guidance of his cousin Scapilion, a priest. At the age of thirty-four he was ordained by St. Agrippinus of Autun and became Abbot of Saint-Symphorien near that town. His characteristic virtue, love for the poor, manifested itself so strongly in his alms-giving, that his monks, fearing he would give away everything, rebelled." It was for this awesome man that the oldest church in Paris is named.


St. Sulpice doesn't have the same kind of interesting biography, so we're going to talk about the gnomon of St-Sulpice. It consists of an obelisk, a meridian line that goes North-South and a little light from a window in the transept of the church that lets in a disk of light that moved up and down on the meridian and helps tell time. Unless it's raining. Which it often is in Paris. It was built at the initiative of a guy named  Jean-Baptiste Languet de Gergy,who has a really fun name to say, I have to say. There was also one of these set up in the Florence Duomo. They used them to help us figure out the calendar we use to day. Yay science and religion! Also, St-Sulpice? 2nd biggest church in Paris. 


Does this count as having done a blog post on these two churches? I mean, there are like three links and I'm fixing to put in pictures. Well, I just did, but you can't tell that unless I do a screen shot. Which I didn't think to do. So now I could have just lied to you. Also, what is that angel doing in the picture to my right of the gnomon of St-Sulpice?


This, this kind of exhaustion with the topic, is why you shouldn't visit more than one church in a day. I mean, maybe you can see two, if you're determined. But the thing is, I saw these two churches on my last day in Paris, and that was quite a busy day and anything I tell you is going to be pulled straight off of google, I can tell you that for a fact. I mean, I could tell you that it was raining that day and that there was a guy with a guitar on the steps of St-Sulpice and that St-Sulpice has a bamf organ... and that there's a cafe right across the street from St-Germain-des-Pres that was pretty popular with Hemingway. 

Also, St-Sulpice isn't balanced- the south tower was never finished. 

Paris has many amazing churches. Rome has many amazing churches. Europe has many amazing churches. You can spend forever in these places, seeking out different buildings and seeing new old things. You know what I'd love? I'd love the chance to actually explore these places. To climb up in the towers of the churches or back in the rooms we're not allowed to see. I've seen Gothic ceilings and arches and I've seen Romanesque and I've seen... pretty much everything you want to throw at me at this point. I want to explore now. I want to see how these churches function as churches. And that's something that a cursory visit won't tell you. That's something you have to, you know, actually talk to people about, set up appointments, etc. 


You know, something that requires effort.