Tuesday, October 24, 2023

It is the 24th of October 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

In 1906, Henry Adams, of the famous political family, first printed his landmark “The Education of Henry Adams,” a social commentary and autobiography unmatched in American history. One of the more famous chapters, later published as a stand-alone essay, was entitled “The Dynamo and the Virgin.” This essay contrasted “the dynamo,” or the technology and industry set on destroying modern culture, and “the Virgin,” a representative of the unifying effects of medieval Christianity as seen in its great Cathedrals. He would write: “All the steam in the world could not, like the Virgin, build Chartres.” This Chartres is, perhaps, the grandest of all medieval Cathedrals, located just south of Paris and consecrated on the 24th of October in 1260.

The flat, fertile land south of Paris was marked by a hill upon which the ancient Carnutes (from which we get the name Chartres) had built a grotto around a well and performed early druid services. Chartres was one of the earliest regions in France to become Christian, perhaps as early as the late 2nd century. As is often the case, Christians would take pagan sites and rededicate them to Christian worship. And so, on this elevation in Chartres, Christians have been worshipping for millennia- but this also brought unwanted attention. The Normans destroyed the first Church erected, as would later the Danes.

In 876, the Sancta Camisa, or Veil of Mary, was brought to the Cathedral by Charles the Bald (the grandson of Charlemagne). This was reported to be the garment worn by the Virgin during the annunciation of the Angel Gabriel and at the birth of Christ. Pollen in the garment tested in the last century revealed it to be from 1st-century Palestine. It was said that at an attack, the bishop took the veil out to the coming attackers, lifted it up, and prayed, and the cathedral was spared.

The Cathedral burned in 1194. The veil, however, kept in the reliquary in the ancient grotto was preserved. What happened next, however, is a kind of miracle we can historically verify. The Cathedral, a source of pride for the French, was rebuilt in an amazing 30 years. The king promised whatever funds were needed could be had, and the local guilds all began to work on a project that, in other circumstances, could take over a century.

The result is the finest example of Gothic architecture in the world. One historian wrote: centuries. “Chartres Cathedral is a hymn to the glory of God and of the Mother of God, the shrine of whose tunic it was built to protect (so far, successfully). It rides its hill over the plains of northern France with no rival on the horizon”.

I should note that “gothic” does not refer to something like your nephew, who is all dressed up like the Cure, but rather that architecture which used vaulting and flying buttresses that could disperse the weight of stones and allow for massive windows. The Cathedral at Chartres has 2,600 square meters of stained glass spread throughout 167 stained glass windows. It is famous for the so-called “Chartres Blue,” which came about through a mixture of sodium carbonate and cobalt.

The Cathedral also has one of the earliest prayer labyrinths on its giant stone floor. Prayer labyrinths were popular in the early church- one would walk them as an exercise in reflecting on the order of the universe whilst praying to its architect and our savior. On Friday, the church furniture is pushed to the side for pilgrims and others for the devotional practice.

On account of the stained glass and veil, the Cathedral was one of the most visited sites for pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. During the French revolution, it became the target of anti-religious sentiment as it both cost a good deal to keep up and was seen as a relic of France’s superstitious past. The veil of Mary was divided for safekeeping, but the church was never destroyed, as some suggested.

During World War 1 and again during World War 2, all 167 stained glass windows were removed from the church and hidden. This remarkable feat, on top of the civic and religious pride that has kept the cathedral safe, makes it worthy of the title of greatest Gothic cathedral and amongst the most beautiful still in existence today. Today, we remember it on the 763rd anniversary of its consecration on the 24th of October in 1260.

 

The last word for today is the first part of a poem by Edith Wharton to the magnificent Cathedral of Chartres titled “Chartres.”

Immense, august, like some Titanic bloom,

   The mighty choir unfolds its lithic core,

Petalled with panes of azure, gules and or,

   Splendidly lambent in the Gothic gloom,

And stamened with keen flamelets that illume

   The pale high-altar. On the prayer-worn floor,

By worshippers innumerous thronged of yore,

   A few brown crones, familiars of the tomb,

The stranded driftwood of Faith’s ebbing sea—

   For these alone the finials fret the skies,

The topmost bosses shake their blossoms free,

   While from the triple portals, with grave eyes,

Tranquil, and fixed upon eternity,

   The cloud of witnesses still testifies.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 24th of October 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man was never good at mazes and thus the prayer labyrinth is a bridge too far- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man for whom “Labyrinth” recalls David Bowie and super creepy Muppets- I’m  Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be OK.