150 Churches in Paris and elsewhere

Nice to see John getting a whole cathedral for once instead of a little baptismal chapel at the back on the left. John is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy,  and as the prophet Yahya ibn Zakariya in Islam. He does not only appear in  the gospel: his existence as a preacher is confirmed by Josephus in his best known work “Antiquities of the Jews”, soon to be a Netflix series (okay I made that last bit up). He quickly became the region's top influencer by offering the service of dunking people in a river while loudly calling everyone not present a "brood of vipers." Unfortunately, his viral success led to a fatal run-in with the royal family, proving that even prophets who draw huge crowds should probably avoid criticizing the King's marriage choices. Anyway, the church was built up slowly, between 1175 and 1480. Things went faster when the pope, Innocent the Fourth, came to live in Lyon for a while. The cathedral served for a while during the...

The Saint Anthony in question did not live in the fifteen twenties, but this church used to be attached to the hospital of the “quinze vingts” - the fifteen twenties, way back. The hospital was so called because it had three hundred beds. You probably guessed. Some say the hospital was set up to care for the three hundred soldiers who came  back from the seventh crusade in the 1250s having had their eyes gouged out by the enemy. But this may be made up. The hospital is today a leading opthalmoplogical centre. Church completed in 1903. in a Romanesque Revival  style (note them semi circular arches).  Rather rustic style of confessional, and dour poor box. In one of the stained glass windows a remarkable and rare representation of God the Father holding out his crucified son to show the world. There is a fine modernist pared down stations of the cross, which was made by Sister Dolores of Dourgne abbey. So it’ s one of those fairly rare  sets of stations of the cross ...