Burgundy: The Splendid Duchy. Stories and Sketches in South BurgundyAllen, Percy
History
Burgundy: The Splendid Duchy. Stories and Sketches in South Burgundy
Allen, Percy
Burgundy (France) -- Description and travel
The monk, for whose funeral the bell-ringers were already awaiting the
summons, awakened with a start, ran, safe and sound, to the Abbot's
room, and told him the whole story. This midnight appearance of a man,
dying an hour ago, and now healed by a marvellous vision, greatly
astonished the good Abbot. Threatened with his brother's sickness,
if he postponed the commencement of the building, and encouraged,
moreover, by the heavenly aid promised to the enterprise, he believed,
obeyed, and, with God's help, raised, in twenty years, a temple that
was the glory of its age, and remained, for centuries, one of the
marvels of Western Europe.[79]
Tradition adds, that Hugues, not knowing exactly where to build the
Church, threw a hammer into the air, and chose the spot where it
fell for the site of his sanctuary. In after years, before the abbey
buildings were mutilated, the inhabitants would still show, near one
of them, an enormous stone that all the workmen and all their machines
were unable to lift. St. Hugues only, during the night, by Divine help,
could raise the huge mass, and place it in position; and ever after the
stone retained the imprint of the Holy Founder's hand.
Often the workmen, as they built the walls of the Church, would notice,
watching them unweariedly, working silently in their midst, but sharing
never in their repasts, a mysterious and wonderful figure. Some said
that he was an angel presiding over the erection of the House of God;
some said that he was none other than St. Hugues himself.
It was in 1095 that Pascal II., crossing Provence by way of Tarascon
and Avignon, arrived at Cluny, in the month of November, accompanied
by a large suite of cardinals, bishops, and priests. Everywhere he was
received with transports of joy; for no living man had yet seen the
Vicar of Christ in this part of the land of Burgundy. At the request
of Hugues, he had come to consecrate the great altar of the unfinished
basilica. This he did, and also superintended the consecration, by
attendant archbishops, of the other altars in the transept. In the
midst of these ceremonies, turning to the crowd of on-lookers who
had surrounded the building on all sides, Pascal reminded them of
the special privileges with which the monastery had been endowed, of
his own connection with it as monk under the same Abbot, who still,
by God's mercy, was alive and well in their midst; then, in the name
of God, and by the holy memories he had awakened, he implored all to
uphold and respect the sanctity of the new abbey-church.
[Illustration: LE BON DIEU
CLUNY]
It was not until 1131 that the great basilica, completed at last, was
consecrated by Innocent II., amid scenes similar to those that had
attended the visit of Urban II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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