Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres

Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio, Umile ed alta piu che creatura, Termine fisso d'eterno consiglio, Tu sei colei che l'umana natura Nobilitasti si, che il suo fattore Non di...

Long before Saint Francis's death, in 1226, the French mystics had exhausted their energies and the siecle had taken new heart. Society could not remain forever balancing betwee...

Super cuncta, subter cuncta, Extra cuncta, intra cuncta, Intra cuncta nec inclusus, Extra cuncta nec exclusus, Super cuncta nec elatus, Subter cuncta nec substratus, Super totus...

After worshipping at the shrines of Saint Michael on his Mount and of the Virgin at Chartres, one may wander far and wide over France, and seldom feel lost; all later Gothic art...

One's first visit to a great cathedral is like one's first visit to the British Museum; the only intelligent idea is to follow the order of time, but the museum is a chaos in ti...

The schoolmen of the twelfth century thought they could reach God by reason; the Council of Sens, guided by Saint Bernard, replied that the effort was futile and likely to be mi...

For a first visit to Chartres, choose some pleasant morning when the lights are soft, for one wants to be welcome, and the cathedral has moods, at times severe. At best, the Bea...

Qui vauroit bons vers oir Del deport du viel caitiff De deus biax enfans petis Nicolete et Aucassins; Des grans paines qu'il soufri Et des proueces qu'il fist For s'amie o le cl...

At last we are face to face with the crowning glory of Chartres. Other churches have glass,--quantities of it, and very fine,--but we have been trying to catch a glimpse of the...

Molz pelerins qui vunt al Munt Enquierent molt e grant dreit unt Comment l'igliese fut fundee Premierement et estoree. Cil qui lor dient de l'estoire Que cil demandent en memoir...

All artists love the sanctuary of the Christian Church, and all tourists love the rest. The reason becomes clear as one leaves the choir, and goes back to the broad, open hall o...

Like all great churches, that are not mere storehouses of theology, Chartres expressed, besides whatever else it meant, an emotion, the deepest man ever felt,--the struggle of h...

We must take ten minutes to accustom our eyes to the light, and we had better use them to seek the reason why we come to Chartres rather than to Rheims or Amiens or Bourges, for...

From Mont-Saint-Michel, the architectural road leads across Normandy, up the Seine to Paris, and not directly through Chartres, which lies a little to the south. In the empire o...

The nineteenth century moved fast and furious, so that one who moved in it felt sometimes giddy, watching it spin; but the eleventh moved faster and more furiously still. The No...

The Archangel loved heights. Standing on the summit of the tower that crowned his church, wings upspread, sword uplifted, the devil crawling beneath, and the cock, symbol of ete...