English: Vézelay Abbey, France.
Français: Le 23 juin 1976 à 14:27 dans la nef de la basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, le Père Hugues Delautre o.f.m. a donné rendez-vous au soleil, à cet instant précis en culmination par rapport à la terre, pour qu'il lui manifeste le secret de l'édifice. Photographie de François Walch.
Photo: 23 June 1976.
Source: Own work.
Author: Francis Vérillon.
(Wikimedia Commons)
English: Basilica Mary Magdalene, Vezelay, France.
Français : Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
Deutsch: Basilika Sainte-Marie-Madeleine
(Maria Magdalena), Vezelay, Département Yonne,
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Frankreich.
Photo: 13 September 2016.
Source: Own work.
Author: DKrieger
(Wikimedia Commons)
Vézelay Abbey (French: Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay) is a Benedictine and Cluniac Monastery in Vézelay, in the French Department of Yonne.
It was constructed between 1120 and 1150. The Benedictine Abbey Church, now the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (Saint Mary Magdalene), with its complex programme of imagery in Sculpted Capitals and Portals, is one of the great masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque Art and Architecture.[1]
Sacked by the Huguenots in 1569, the building suffered neglect in the 17th- and 18th-Centuries and some further damage during the period of The French Revolution.[2]
The Church and hill at Vézelay were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979 because of their importance in Mediæval Christianity and outstanding Architecture.[1] Relics of Mary Magdalene can be seen inside the Basilica.
The Benedictine Abbey of Vézelay was Founded,[3] as many Abbeys were, on land that had been a Late-Roman Villa, of Vercellus (Vercelle becoming Vézelay). The Villa had passed into the hands of the Carolingians and devolved to a Carolingian Count, Girart, of Roussillon.
The two Convents he Founded there were looted and dispersed by Moorish raiding parties in the 8th-Century A.D., and a hilltop Convent was burnt by Norman raiders. In the 9th-Century A.D., the Abbey was re-Founded under the guidance of Badilo, who became an affiliate of The Reformed Benedictine Order of Cluny. Vézelay also stood at the beginning of one of the four major routes through France for Pilgrims going to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in North-West Spain.
About 1050, the Monks of Vézelay began to claim to hold the Relics of Mary Magdalene, brought, they said, from The Holy Land either by their 9th-Century A.D. Founder-Saint, Badilo, or by envoys despatched by him.[4]
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A little later, a Monk of Vézelay declared that he had detected in a Crypt at St-Maximin in Provence, carved on an empty sarcophagus, a representation of the Unction at Bethany, when Jesus’ Head was anointed by Mary of Bethany, who was assumed in The Middle Ages to be Mary Magdalene.
The Monks of Vézelay pronounced this to be Mary Magdalene's tomb, from which her Relics had been Translated to their Abbey. Freed captives then brought their chains as Votive objects to the Abbey, and it was the newly-elected Abbot Geoffroy in 1037 who had the ironwork melted down and re-forged as wrought-iron railings surrounding The Magdalene’s Altar.[4]
Mary Magdalene is the prototype of the Penitent, and Vézelay has remained an important place of Pilgrimage for the Catholic Faithful, though the actual claimed Relics were torched by Huguenots in the 16th-Century.
To accommodate the influx of Pilgrims, a new Abbey Church was begun, Dedicated on 21 April 1104, the expense of building so increased the tax burden on the Abbey's lands that the Peasants rose up and killed the Abbot. The crush of Pilgrims was such that an extended Narthex (an enclosed Porch) was built, inaugurated by Pope Innocent II in 1132, to help accommodate the Pilgrim throng.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux preached at Vézelay, in favour of a Second Crusade, at Easter 1146, in front of King Louis VII. Also, King Richard I of England and King Philip II of France met there and spent three months at the Abbey in 1190 before leaving for The Third Crusade.
After The French Revolution, Vézelay stood in danger of collapse. In 1834, the newly-appointed French Inspector of Historical Monuments, Prosper Mérimée (more familiar as the author of Carmen), warned that it was about to collapse, and, on his recommendation, the young Architect, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was appointed to supervise a massive and successful restoration, undertaken in several stages between 1840 and 1861, during which his team replaced a great deal of the weathered and vandalised sculpture. The Flying Buttresses that support the Nave are his.[6]
The Tympanum of the Central Portal of The Madeleine de Vézelay is different from its counterparts across Europe. From the beginning, its Tympanum was specifically designed to function as a spiritual defence of The Crusades and to portray a Christian allegory to The Crusaders’ mission. When compared to contemporary Churches, such as Saint Lazare d'Autun and Saint Pierre de Moissac, the distinctiveness of Vézelay becomes apparent.
The Art Historian George Zarnecki wrote: “To most people, the term Romanesque Sculpture brings to mind a large Church Portal, dominated by a Tympanum carved with an apocalyptic vision, usually The Last Judgment.”[7] This is true in most cases, but Vézelay is an exception. In a 1944 article, Adolf Katzenellenbogen interpreted Vézelay’s Tympanum as referring to The First Crusade and depicting the Pentecostal mission of The Apostles.[8]
Thirty years before the Vézelay Tympanum was carved, Pope Urban II planned on announcing his call for a Crusade at La Madeleine. In 1095, Urban altered his plans and preached for The First Crusade at The Council of Clermont, but Vézelay remained a central figure in the history of The Crusades.
The Tympanum was completed in 1130. Fifteen years after its completion, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux chose Vézelay as the place from which he would call for a Second Crusade. Vézelay was even the staging point for The Third Crusade. It is there that King Richard the Lionheart of England and King Philip Augustus of France met and joined their armies for a combined Western invasion of The Holy Land. It is appropriate, therefore, that Vézelay’s Portal reflects its place in the history of The Crusades.
In 1976, after more than eight Centuries, Hugues Delautre, one of the Franciscan Fathers previously in charge of servicing the Vézelay Sanctuary, discovered that not only the orientation axis of La Madeleine, but also its internal structure, were determined according to the position of the Earth relative to the Sun.
Every year, just before the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist, the astronomical dimensions of this Church are revealed: When the Sun reaches its highest point of the year, at local noon on the Summer Solstice, the light coming through the Southern Clerestory windows casts a series of luminous spots precisely along the longitudinal centre of the Nave floor.[12][13][14][15]
To understand the meaning of this objective sign, Father Hugues Delautre refers to the 12th-Century texts (Suger, Peter the Venerable, Honorius of Autun) that inhabit the monument with the symbolic mentality of that time, for which sense reveals itself from sensitive signs through the anagogical method (literally “ascent towards the uncreated”), and where one’s gaze is invited to go beyond the reality of the sign to reach the invisible, i.e. God and His Mystery. Letting himself be progressively informed by the Vézelay light, he so concludes:
It was constructed between 1120 and 1150. The Benedictine Abbey Church, now the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (Saint Mary Magdalene), with its complex programme of imagery in Sculpted Capitals and Portals, is one of the great masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque Art and Architecture.[1]
Sacked by the Huguenots in 1569, the building suffered neglect in the 17th- and 18th-Centuries and some further damage during the period of The French Revolution.[2]
The Benedictine Abbey of Vézelay was Founded,[3] as many Abbeys were, on land that had been a Late-Roman Villa, of Vercellus (Vercelle becoming Vézelay). The Villa had passed into the hands of the Carolingians and devolved to a Carolingian Count, Girart, of Roussillon.
English: The Great West Door of Vézelay Abbey, France, showing the magnificent Romanesque Tympanum.
Français: Le tympan central du narthex (1140-1150), ouvert pour la sortie de la messe. Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine.
Photo: 15 July 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Vassil
(Wikimedia Commons)
The two Convents he Founded there were looted and dispersed by Moorish raiding parties in the 8th-Century A.D., and a hilltop Convent was burnt by Norman raiders. In the 9th-Century A.D., the Abbey was re-Founded under the guidance of Badilo, who became an affiliate of The Reformed Benedictine Order of Cluny. Vézelay also stood at the beginning of one of the four major routes through France for Pilgrims going to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in North-West Spain.
About 1050, the Monks of Vézelay began to claim to hold the Relics of Mary Magdalene, brought, they said, from The Holy Land either by their 9th-Century A.D. Founder-Saint, Badilo, or by envoys despatched by him.[4]
4.png)
Romanesque Tympanum of Saint Lazare Abbey, Autun, France, which depicts The Day of Judgement.
(Compare with the Tympanum of Vézelay Abbey (Above)).
Photo: 20 August 2019.
Source: Own work.
Author: Steffens uploads
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Monks of Vézelay pronounced this to be Mary Magdalene's tomb, from which her Relics had been Translated to their Abbey. Freed captives then brought their chains as Votive objects to the Abbey, and it was the newly-elected Abbot Geoffroy in 1037 who had the ironwork melted down and re-forged as wrought-iron railings surrounding The Magdalene’s Altar.[4]
Mary Magdalene is the prototype of the Penitent, and Vézelay has remained an important place of Pilgrimage for the Catholic Faithful, though the actual claimed Relics were torched by Huguenots in the 16th-Century.
English: Tower of the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, Vézelay, France, (XII/XIIIth Centuries and important restorations of Viollet-le-Duc between 1840 and 1859).
Français: Tour et côté sud de la basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (XII/XIIIe siècles et importantes restaurations
de Viollet-le-Duc entre 1840 et 1859).
Photo: 17 June 2002.
Source: Own work.
Author: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
(Wikimedia Commons)
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux preached at Vézelay, in favour of a Second Crusade, at Easter 1146, in front of King Louis VII. Also, King Richard I of England and King Philip II of France met there and spent three months at the Abbey in 1190 before leaving for The Third Crusade.
Thomas Becket, in exile, chose Vézelay for his Whitsunday Sermon in 1166, announcing the excommunication of the main supporters of his English King, Henry II, and threatening the King with excommunication, too. The Nave, which had been burnt once, with great loss of life, burned again in 1165, after which it was rebuilt in its present form.
The Abbey’s self-assured Monastic Community was prepared to defend its liberties and privileges against all-comers:[5] The Bishops of Autun, who challenged its claims to exemption; The Counts of Nevers, who claimed jurisdiction in their Court and Rights of Hospitality at Vézelay; The Abbey of Cluny, which had reformed its Rule and sought to maintain control of the Abbot within its hierarchy; the Townsmen of Vézelay, who demanded a modicum of communal Self-Government.
The beginning of Vézelay's decline coincided with the well-publicised discovery in 1279 of the body of Mary Magdalene at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in Provence, France, given Regal Patronage by King Charles II, The Angevin King of Sicily.
When King Charles II erected a Dominican Convent at La Sainte-Baume, the Shrine was found intact, with an explanatory inscription stating why the Relics had been hidden. The local Dominican Friars compiled an account of Miracles that these Relics had wrought. This discovery undermined Vézelay's position as the principal Shrine of The Magdalene in Europe.
The beginning of Vézelay's decline coincided with the well-publicised discovery in 1279 of the body of Mary Magdalene at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in Provence, France, given Regal Patronage by King Charles II, The Angevin King of Sicily.
When King Charles II erected a Dominican Convent at La Sainte-Baume, the Shrine was found intact, with an explanatory inscription stating why the Relics had been hidden. The local Dominican Friars compiled an account of Miracles that these Relics had wrought. This discovery undermined Vézelay's position as the principal Shrine of The Magdalene in Europe.
Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene,
Vézelay, France.
Available on YouTube at
The Tympanum of the Central Portal of The Madeleine de Vézelay is different from its counterparts across Europe. From the beginning, its Tympanum was specifically designed to function as a spiritual defence of The Crusades and to portray a Christian allegory to The Crusaders’ mission. When compared to contemporary Churches, such as Saint Lazare d'Autun and Saint Pierre de Moissac, the distinctiveness of Vézelay becomes apparent.
English: Romanesque Tympanum.
Saint-Foy de Conques Abbey, Aveyron, France.
Compare with the Tympanum of Vézelay Abbey (Above).
Français: Le tympan de l'abbatiale Sainte-Foy de Conques.
Il représente le jugement dernier. Auteur: woodstock.
Photo: 10 November 2005.
Author: Original uploader was Woodstock at fr.wikipedia
(Wikimedia Commons)
Thirty years before the Vézelay Tympanum was carved, Pope Urban II planned on announcing his call for a Crusade at La Madeleine. In 1095, Urban altered his plans and preached for The First Crusade at The Council of Clermont, but Vézelay remained a central figure in the history of The Crusades.
The Tympanum was completed in 1130. Fifteen years after its completion, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux chose Vézelay as the place from which he would call for a Second Crusade. Vézelay was even the staging point for The Third Crusade. It is there that King Richard the Lionheart of England and King Philip Augustus of France met and joined their armies for a combined Western invasion of The Holy Land. It is appropriate, therefore, that Vézelay’s Portal reflects its place in the history of The Crusades.
English: The Romanesque Tympanum of Moissac Abbey, Tarn-et-Garonne Department, Languedoc, France. (Compare with the Tympanum of Vézelay Abbey (Above)).
Français: Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac.
Deutsch: Abtei Saint-Pierre (Moissac).
Español: Abadía de Moissac.
Polski: Opactwo św. Piotra w Moissac.
Photo: 10 July 2017.
Source: Own work.
Author: 13okouran
(Wikimedia Commons)
Every year, just before the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist, the astronomical dimensions of this Church are revealed: When the Sun reaches its highest point of the year, at local noon on the Summer Solstice, the light coming through the Southern Clerestory windows casts a series of luminous spots precisely along the longitudinal centre of the Nave floor.[12][13][14][15]
“Has not the builder, fascinated by the beauty of the universe which he recognises as the work of God, erected this vestibule to Heaven in imitation of God Who created with order, measure and beauty ?
“He could say, as Solomon did, when he constructed the Temple in Jerusalem exactly according to God’s instructions: Thou hast given command to build a temple on Thy holy mountain; a copy of the holy tent which Thou didst prepare from the beginning (Wisdom 9:8). The Nave is the expression of Romanesque man’s admiring submission to The Divine Plan, testified to by all creation. The Heavens declare The Glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handywork” (Psalms 19:1).
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