Les Billettes
Les Billettes , Église des Billettes , Temple des Billettes , is a church in the 4th arrondissement ( Marais ) of Paris . It is part of a monastery complex that dates back to the 13th century and has been a Lutheran parish church since 1810 . Today's Evangelical Lutheran congregation is part of the United Protestant Church of France .
history
The miracle of the host
The original legend of the monastery is the Miracle des Billettes , the story of the sacrifice of the host of a Jew and its thwarting by a chain of miracles. The historical core of the story cannot be verified. It is an expression of the anti-Jewish and miraculous zeitgeist. The legend was known throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages, was often decorated and illustrated.
The oldest written version of the story dates from 1322: for Easter in 1290, an impoverished Parisian woman wants to buy her festive dress from a Jewish pawnbroker . Since she cannot pay, the Jew demands a consecrated host as the price , which the woman can really bring out of the church and to him on the tongue after communion . She gets her dress and leaves. The Jew now begins to torture the host . He pierces her with a knife - blood flows from her. He calls his wife and two children, who beg him in horror to end the iniquity. But he, getting more and more angry, drives a nail into the bleeding host and scourges it, but it remains whole. He throws her into the fire, but she floats out of it unscathed. He tries to cut it up, he nailed it to the wall. Finally he throws them into a kettle of boiling water. The water turns blood red, but the host floats up again - and before his eyes assumes the shape of the crucified Christ. Now the Jew is fleeing and hiding in a corner of his house. The bells of the neighboring monastery of Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie ring out for the Easter solemn mass and many people crowd there. The son of the Jew asks the passers-by where they are going and they reply that they want to worship God. The boy replies that God died under the blows of his father. A neighbor hears this and, under the pretext of starting a fire, enters the Jew's house with a vessel. At the sight of the prevailing devastation, she crosses herself - and the host, which still hovers over the cauldron, sinks into her vessel. She takes them to the nearest church, the pastor informs the bishop, who has the Jew and his family arrested and interrogated. While his wife and children convert to Christianity, he perseveres himself, tells his story in detail and is burned at the stake after long interrogation. His family will then be baptized, as will a large number of Jews who were converted by this event.
Frères hospitaliers
The Jewish house in which the host sacrilege and the miracle should have happened has been expropriated. A wealthy Parisian citizen had it converted into an atonement chapel in 1294. In 1299 King Philip IV settled the nursing order Frères hospitaliers de la Charité de Notre-Dame near the chapel , which was called les billettes ("the platelets") , probably because of the shape of its scapular .
A stream of pilgrims quickly set in, bringing in money and foundations. In 1405 a representative church was built, and in 1427 the cloister , which still exists today . In the 16th century, the convent experienced its decline.
Carmelites
In 1631 the monastery buildings were given to the Carmelites of the Observance of Rennes , who have called themselves the Carmelites of Billettes since then . In 1756–1758 they replaced the old monastery church with a new building in the style of the French classical late baroque .
In the course of the revolution , the monastery was closed. In 1800 the buildings became municipal property.
Lutheran congregation
The Napoleonic legislation granted to non-Catholic religious communities equal rights and government support. In 1810, Les Billettes church was handed over to the Lutheran congregation of Paris, which had grown through immigrants from Lutheran territories, and was restored. A school was set up in the convent buildings. The cloister has also been preserved and is now the last of the numerous monastery cloisters in Paris.
architecture
church
The church is a gallery basilica with double galleries in clear classical forms. The order of the columns and pilasters is ionic . The arched windows of the upper aisle continue in the five windows of the round apse. The gable with the portal faces the Rue des Archives . A lantern-shaped roof turret stands above it .
Cloister
The rectangle of the Gothic cloister is not large, but it is impressive because of its closed nature. The facility was restored true to the original in 1968. The pointed arches face the inner courtyard with four-tiered walls . The corridor spanning ribbed vault . The house development dates from the 17th and 19th centuries.
Furnishing
Nothing has been preserved from the pre-revolutionary equipment. In the 19th century, some 17th century biblical paintings were donated to the church, which are now in the sacristy.
In 1842 the church received a Cavaillé-Coll organ. It is now in the Chapelle de Jésus-Enfant . In 1983 the Muhleisen company built a new organ. The instrument has 29 registers on three manuals and a pedal . The playing and stop actions are mechanical.
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- Coupling: I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, II / P
Individual evidence
- ↑ older French term for non-Catholic churches
- ^ Website of the Lutheran congregation (French)
- ↑ a b Assessment and retelling of the legend according to Camille Salatko Petryszcze: Le Mistere de la Saincte Hostie . Rennes University 2
- ↑ One of the most famous depictions is the six-part cycle by Paolo Uccello (1468).
- ↑ Le miracle oublié des Billettes , vivrelemarais.typepad.fr
- ↑ stsulpice.com ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ paris.catholique.fr
- ↑ muhleisen.fr
Web links
- Paris, église luthérienne des Billettes (patrimoine-histoire.fr, French, with pictures)
- L'église des Billettes et le dernier cloître de Paris (evous.fr, French)
- Network presence of the parish (French)
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '28.6 " N , 2 ° 21' 18.7" E