81 Paris 19th arrondissement -church of Saint Francis of Assisi. Modern stained glass and rock n roll.

Paris 19th arrondissement; church of Saint Francis of Assisi. Modern stained glass and rock n roll.

(I am approaching the end of the second year of this blog and have blogged about fewer churches in the second year than in the first, so let's see if I can do an end of year sprint to catch up a little).

I really liked this church - modern stained glass and confessionals. One of the windows features God the Father, who is often not depicted in stained glass storyboards. Very modern stations of the cross, not always easy to read. The lectern and the altar table again in sharp pared down style. On the walls are romanesque style frescos of scenes from Saint Francis’s life, including his trip to  Egypt to try and negotiate an end to that pesky fifth crusade. And a beautiful Christ mosaic stands behind the altar.

It was built between 1914 and 1926, and was set up to celebrate the seven hundredth anniversary of the Third Order of Saint Francis, or “the Order of Penance” for our older readers. This order was established in 1222, and reorganized in 1978. And I just learned that if you want to join the Third Order of Saint Francis, you can choose between three flavours - Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran.

Top French rock n roller, Eddie Mitchell, received his first Holy Communion in this church.