45: Paris, 12th arrondissement : Saint Eloi. The church of the patron saint of coin collectors

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The church of the patron saint of coin collectors...


This church was recommended to me by my friend Guillaume – I must start taking requests, so if you have a church you want me to visit, let me know ( John dot mullen AT WANADOO dot FR). It was hard to find the entrance, and in my confusion I forgot to take a picture of the 90 foot high metal bell tower.

The Saint Eloi church (the gentleman is sometimes known in English as St Eligius) was started in 1968 and is very modern. So modern that there isn’t even a wikipedia article in English on it – because church lovers generally feel more at home with ancient mystery and stuff.

St Eloi is a metal structure covered in sheets of aluminium. Inside is rather austere : the stations of the cross merely Roman numerals, practically no statues. There is one statue though from the 1930s, which was made for the great 1937 exhibition, which shows St Eloi with a hammer and other tools for carpentry. The church is set among what look like social housing blocks in the East of Paris, and it looks like a church for poor people ; you can see on the noticeboards that they organize a food bank, and lodge a few homeless people, as well as organizing French lessons for immigrants.

I liked the nativity crib,  and the very simple holy water basin.

St Eloi was a seventh century bishop and Minister of Finance (yep). Every year in Paris there is a (fairly small) celebration commemorating the time in the 13th century when one of the arms of his corpse was moved into Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. I guess you get your kicks where you can. St Eloi is also one of the very few saints to figure in a nursery rhyme ‘Le bon roi dagobert ', put to music here: 


More on your saint (patron of coin collectors among other part-time jobs)  here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Eligius

 

Information on the church in French  https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-%C3%89loi_de_Paris

Information on the church in Czech https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostel_svat%C3%A9ho_Eligia_(Pa%C5%99%C3%AD%C5%BE)



































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