132 Nevers, France, Cathedral of Saints Cyricus and Julitta. How many joyful mysteries were there again ?

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Here we are almost in the dead centre of France, in a town on the road to Santiago de Compostela, which recently is above all known as the place where ex-Prime Minister Beregovoy  killed himself, on the symbolic first of May. I visited it while looking up a friend who likes growing stuff in the countryside.

It has some very original things to offer, but first of all let’s look at those saints. Saint Cyricus and his mother are part of that unlucky bunch who got put to death just before the Roman emperor decided Christianity was cool. Only eight years later they would have been getting special treatment and being invited to all the best dinner parties, after Constantine plumped for Christianity, in 312. But, sadly, it was not to be. They were killed in 304. Cyricus was particularly precocious, being martyred at the age of three, apparently for being Christian and scratching the governor’s face. I am not making this up, but most places that speak of it use a lot of " it is said that " or " the story has it that… " so there could be some fake news in the mix.

The inside is particularly noted for modern stained glass windows, installed in a series of chapels, including the chapel of the Passage of the Red Sea , the Noah’s Ark Chapel  and  the Chapel of the Joyful Mysteries » (of which, you will remember, there are five). The stained glass is magnificent. There are two sets of Stations of the Cross, of which one set, in some sort of enamelled cylindrical thingy, is particularly original (and I have seen hundreds of sets of Stations of the Cross).

A couple of royals got buried here. Later, the cathedral was severely damaged by an RAF bomb.









































 

 

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