There's too much on my heart and mind to night to say anything so I leave you all with a photo of one of my spiritual places, the 11th-century abbatial church of Conques, France. It is tucked into a valley, like a shell which is what 'conques' means. It is a living church that still has a monastic community that worships there. And it is on the Chemin de Saint Jacques.
So, linger here for a moment and in the time that you would spend reading some nonsense from me, say a prayer for all those who have asked for them. And then have a gentle night.
4 comments:
Oh my, one of my favorite places too. I show my students in History of Christianity pictures of the tympanum there. A French friend introduced me to the place only about ten years ago. Before that I didn't know it existed, despite a whole upbringing in France. Thanks.
I loved visiting there -- you go down into a kind of bowl, probably formed by a volcano, and the abbey church is at the bottom. And I found out two years ago that it now has a website...
Have you read Hannah Green's The Little Saint? It's about her discovery of Conques in the late 1970s and a reflection on Sainte Foy. There's a virtual visit website -- perhaps the one to which you refer? In any event, walking down into Conques, at the end of a 25-30k day was so powerful, especially since one of the chapters in my Ph.D. dissertation is on La Chanson de Ste Foy. I am curious about your 'upbringing in France' -- quelle chance!
I have not read the book. Must look it up!
I grew up in Paris where my father was a U.S. journalist. Went to French public schools straight through the Bac. Then to the U.S. for college, then back to France, then to divinity school in the U.S. and there I stayed. But Paris is still home in many ways. Some of my dearest friends moved to the Southwest (near Sarlat) so I now also have contacts in that region. Was in Paris in November (see blog for that period, it's all archived) for the first time in several years. Had a conference in Belgium and just had to go through France, right?
The dissertation sounds interesting!
Cool. My 80 year-old parents went on a tour last fall that had them based in Sarlat; they liked it a lot.
As for the dissertation, it is called, The Warrior Saint and the Old French Hagiographic Epic, 1050-1250, Princeton University, 1991. (I just googled it and it comes up under les Archives de littérature du Moyen Age, way cool. There are 18 of us crazies who studied La Vie de Saint Alexis, of which 3 of us studied at Princeton under the same prof.)
http://www.arlima.net/uz/vie_de_saint_alexis.html
It is quite something to sit on the little plaza in front of Conques, sipping a beer while looking at that tympanum with its depiction of hell.
Post a Comment