106 - Paris 12th arrondissement -Church of the Holy Spirit. Half Byzantine, half reinforced concrete

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 The Holy Spirit doesn’t have that many churches dedicated to it/him/her/them. Generally disguised as a dove or a tongue of flame, the Holy Spirit is the third bit of the Trinity. It is rather less well-defined than the other two bits : God the Father, creating universes quickly before having a day off, and God the Son, gurgling in the straw when he’s not bleeding out on the cross or giving moral guidance, bread and fish to large crowds. But there are people working hard to define the Holy Spirit more carefully. In Christian theology, pneumatology is the study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Half of  you think I am making this up, but I’m not.

Anyway, Saint Peter and a bunch of others have more churches than him/her/it/them. This church is a twentieth century one in Paris, not far from the bookshop La Brèche (https://la-breche.com/ ) It has kind of sepia frescoes on some of the walls, a colourful fresco of Saint Peter in his fave position, and a very original Stations of the Cross set which almost look like line drawings. There is a modern canopy over the altar and a great chunky pulpit.

It was decided in 1928 that because the population of the area was growing rapidly, a new church was required. « Half Byzantine, half reinforced concrete » were the instructions, and the result is very pretty. Paul the architect did have a few problems thinking out the church at the beginning, because he had a triangular piece of land to work with.

The frescoes show episodes from the story of the Church of Christ from Pentecost, 33AD, up to the 20th century . So you have the coming of the Gospel to America (rose spectacles tho, course), the 1439 Council of Florence, Saint Gregory inventing Gregorian chant etc. Of the sixteen frescoes I have named artists for, six were women, which for the twentieth century is better than normal.

 








































































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