The Catholic World, Vol. 26, October, 1877, to March, 1878Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 26, October, 1877, to March, 1878
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
The mill where M. Borie was born stands solitary on the border of a
stream, surrounded by chestnut-trees, in a deep, narrow, gloomy valley
of La Corrèze, near Roc Amadour—a humble abode, but the sanctuary of
peace, industry, and piety. When the news of his martyrdom came to this
sequestered spot, his heroic mother was filled with joy, in spite of her
anguish, and his youngest brother cried: “I am going! God calls me to
the land where my brother died. Mother, give me your blessing. I am
going to open heaven to my brother’s murderers!” He went; and we
remember hearing a holy Jesuit Father relate how, like the knights of
the olden time, he made his vigil before the altar of Our Lady of Roc
Amadour the night before he joined the sacred militia of the great
Loyola.
Beneath the church of Saint-Sauveur is the subterranean church of St.
Amadour, with low, ponderous arches and massive columns to sustain the
large edifice above. You go down into it as into a cellar. At each side
as you enter are elaborate carvings in the wood, one representing
Zaccheus in the sycamore-tree, eager to behold our Saviour as he passed;
the other shows him standing in the door of his house to welcome the
divine Guest. On the arches is painted the whole legend of St. Amadour.
Then there is Roland before the altar of the Virgin redeeming his sword
with its weight in silver, and beyond is a band of knights bringing it
back from the fatal battle-field. In another place you see St. Martial
of Limoges and St. Saturnin of Toulouse, coming together to visit St.
Amadour in his cave. And yonder is St. Dominic, who, with Bertrand de
Garrigue, one of his earliest disciples, passed the night in prayer
before the altar of Our Lady in the year 1219.
All that remains of the body of St. Amadour is enshrined in this church
behind the high altar.
A service for the dead was going on when we entered this crypt, with
only the priest and the beadle to sing it. Black candlesticks stood on
the altar, and yellow wax-lights around the bier. The church was full of
peasants with grave, devout faces and lighted candles in their hands.
The funeral chant, the black pall, the motionless peasants with their
lights, and this chill, tomb-like church of the eleventh century, all
seemed in harmony.
The pilgrim, of course, visits the chapel of St. Ann overhanging the
town, and that of St. Blaise, with its Roman arches of the thirteenth
century, built to receive the relics, brought by the Crusaders from the
East, of a holy solitary who lived many years in a cave of the
wilderness, the wild beasts around as submissive to him as to Adam in
Paradise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account