88 - Paris, 4th arrondissement: Saint Paul and Saint Louis. Authentic Calvary experience included.

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 88 - Paris, 4th arrondissement: Saint Paul and Saint Louis. Authentic Calvary experience included.


You know how occasionally times get rough and you have to share a church between two saints ?  Well, that is not why this church has two saints’ names on it. Like many things in this country it is actually because of the French Revolution. A Saint Paul church up the road got destroyed, and by the time the French state was friends with the pope again, the parishioners from St Paul’s had occupied a chunk of Saint Louis church. Many Jesuits were involved.


You have beautiful vistas with pillars and domes, and baroque stained glass. The confessionals are fine - makes you want to sin. The pulpit is magnificent.  And the paintings, of St Joseph and young Jesus in particular, are well worth a look.


But from the point of view of church history, the most interesting thing about this church are the Stations of the Cross. In your ordinary common or garden Stations of the Cross you get fourteen piccies, representing moments in the life of Jesus when things started to go pear-shaped, ending with him being laid in the tomb (spoiler: this is not the complete end of the story). So you have “Jesus falls for the third time” for example, and “Veronica wipes the face of Jesus”. 


BUT, some of the more serious Jesus fans were unhappy with these Stations of the Cross, because a number of the episodes (like falling three times) were not actually in the Gospels at all. So to give a more authentic feel to the whole getting crucified thing, they invented “The Scriptural Stations of the Cross”, which may be used by churches if they wish. This was Pope John Paul the Second’s idea. And this church is one of the rare places where they did do this. So you have stations like Peter denying Jesus, and Judas betraying , just like in TOS.





































































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