Basilica of St. Remigius

Having died at the age of 96, Bishop Remigius in 533 was buried, like his predecessors, in a small chapel of St. Christopher in a cemetery outside the city walls of Reims. The growing worship of his remains soon led to a change of guardianship over the chapel and the expansion of its building. In the 570s, the basilica of St. Remigius was already mentioned by Gregory of Tours . The ceremonial transfer of the remains of Remigius to the new temple took place on October 1 , and this day subsequently became the day of remembrance of Saint Remigius in Australia , where Reims was for some time the capital, and then in the East Frankish kingdom .

In 760, Archbishop Tilpin - the historical prototype of Archbishop Turpin from the poem Song of Roland - founded the abbey here and placed the monks who came from the Saint Denis Abbey , where he himself was a member of a religious order. The monastery received the official status of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Remigius . Wide veneration of the saint and generous donations led to the rapid growth of the monastery. Since that time, for more than 1000 years (up to the French Revolution ), Benedictine monks held services at the relics of St. Remigius and received pilgrims.

The abbey church was expanded in the 9th century, and on October 1, 852 it was consecrated by the Archbishop of Reims Ginkmar , by the decision of which the relics of St. Remigius, in compliance with all the rules, were placed in a silver-coated cancer . In the X century, a group of buildings located outside the city walls received their own fencing and a small settlement was established under the jurisdiction of the abbey, the rector of which, by permission of the Reims archbishops, was elected a monk until 945. It was in this abbey that Charlemagne received Pope Leo III .

The rapid spiritual and temporal development of the settlement made the abbot Abbot Ayrar begin in 1007-1010 to build a very large building of a new church in the Romanesque style . The project was so ambitious that funds soon ran out and his successor, Abbot Thierry, was forced to order the destruction of part of the completed structure and start new construction on a more modest project. From the first project, support columns of the nave , shaped like a beam and decorated with unusually rich molding, have been preserved today. The altar part of the temple in the first half of the XI century passed into the apse , intended to accommodate the remains of St. Remigius. In both wings of the transept, three side apse adjoined the building. This long transept on the sides still had aisles. Anticipated by a large porch, the nave, which had a length of 11 spans, was wide enough to accommodate a large crowd, even taking into account that the church choir of monks was located in the three spans closest to the transept. At that time, the entire structure had an ordinary wooden roof. The structural elements of the basilica were very spacious, but its spans did not differ from each other, horizontal lines prevailed, converging in the direction of the altar of the temple. The new basilica building was consecrated by Pope Leo IX on October 1, 1049 . The consecration took place in the presence of a large number of priests gathered in Reims at the Ecumenical Council , which announced the beginning of church reforms, later called Gregorian .

In the XII century, the church was partially rebuilt, after which it acquired some Gothic features. Odon, who was rector from 1118 to 1151, decorated the abbey church with a mosaic floor, a huge chandelier with seven compartments, and also added tombstones to emphasize the function of the basilica as a royal tomb. His activity clearly shows the intention to surpass the glory of the abbey of Saint-Denis and his abbot Suger . This aspiration, no doubt, also led the actions of his successor, Peter of Cella (he held the post of abbot in 1162–1181), who began to implement the big plan for decorating the entire basilica building, so that it began to resemble the churches of Parisian abbeys.

It was obvious that the altar area of ​​the temple was not spacious enough, which made access to the relics difficult, and the entrance to the nave was narrowed and poorly lit. First of all, he ordered to demolish the porch of the basilica, while preserving the Romanesque towers in the corners of the building, and then extended the nave to two Gothic grasses , which made it possible to build a new facade open to daylight. Another important change in architecture was made based on the interests of the pilgrims - after the reconstruction, the tomb of St. Remigius was in the apse , and the pilgrims could only see it from afar. Therefore, Abbot Peter ordered to replace the line of the apse of the Romanesque style with a new spacious altar of the temple, surrounded by a deambulatory with five radially diverging chapels. The new abbot Simon (who held the post of abbot in 1182-1198) brought this project to completion by lifting the walls of the nave and transept with lancet arches and covering the walls with a vaulted ceiling, arranging round windows in them. An expensive project for installing stained - glass windows was completed. It is safe to say that this period became the heyday of monastic life in the abbey of St. Remigius, which numbered from 150 to 200 monks.

In the Hundred Years War, the number of monks was reduced to about 40. In 1473, an act was issued on the right to life-long use of property and income from it . One of the first beneficiary priests was Archbishop Robert de Lenoncourt , who did not neglect the condition of the building. In 1506, he completed a project to rebuild the southern facade of the transept in the style of flaming Gothic, and in 1531 placed ten unique decorative tapestries in the choirs illustrating the life of St. Remigius . In 1602, Abbot-Archbishop Philippe du Beck shortened the north wing of the transept by one span and ordered the installation of a large outlet window , and soon after that a project was completed to reconstruct the staircase leading to the monks' dormitory.

The monastery library and school had such a high reputation that Pope Alexander III wrote a letter of thanks to the abbot, which reached us. In the XVII century, the abbey of St. Remigius passed into the Congregation of the Holy Moor , a branch of the Benedictines.

In 1793, the abbey, like other French monasteries, was closed. The basilica was devastated by the revolutionaries, the mosaic floors of the Romanesque style were broken to make the floor more comfortable for horse standing, the Holy Glass Maker and many valuable objects of the temple's decoration were lost, but the 12th-century stained-glass windows survived. Subsequently, the basilica continued to exist as a parish church , and this saved it from destruction. But by the beginning of the 19th century, the vaulted ceiling of the nave was so badly damaged that, given the lack of funds in 1830-1835, it was hastily replaced with a wooden false ceiling covered with stucco. At the same time, the city architect of Reims, Narcissus Brunett, restored the upper levels of the facade of the basilica, trying to restore their original condition. But these works were not done in good faith, and his “restoration” is clearly distinguished by a different stone structure.

In 1918, during the First World War, the church building was seriously damaged by German shelling. The vaulted false ceiling burned out and the nave remained unprotected against various weather events. As a result, the southern wall of the nave collapsed and part of the transept wing collapsed. It took 40 years to rebuild the damaged parts of the building. The restoration was carried out flawlessly under the direction of the architect Henri Deneuve , while stone arches above the nave were also erected. On October 1, 1958, the Basilica of St. Remigius was fully prepared for church services. In 1991, the Basilica of St. Remigius, along with two other attractions of Reims - the cathedral and the palace of To - were included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites . In 1996, the basilica was visited by Pope John Paul II , who led the celebrations on the occasion of 1,500 years of the baptism of Clovis by St. Remigius.

The church has a Latin cross in plan. The nave and the sleeves of the transept are Romanesque, these are the most ancient parts of the temple. The choir and gallery with chapels are made in the Gothic style. The newest part is the facade of the southern transept.

The basilica has a small number of sculptural decorations. On the main facade on the restored antique columns are two statues. One of them, of course, is the statue of St. Remigius. The second statue - St. Peter - testifies to the belonging of the temple to the Roman Catholic Church .

The only capitals decorated with figures were originally located in the three highest grasses of the nave above the benches of the monks. These sculptures of the late XII century (some substantially restored) depict the predecessors of Jesus Christ, who announced the appearance of the Messiah in his prophecies. Some of these characters were also depicted in a large mosaic that adorned the monks' choirs and did not survive to this day.

A giant chandelier 6 meters high with seven branches with its large crown of light, as if soaring above the heads of the monks, symbolized the biblical story of Salvation , rooted in the Old Testament. The chandelier that we see in the basilica today is a mediocre copy of the original of the 12th century, destroyed by the revolutionaries. Nevertheless, she still fulfills her symbolic destiny.

The reconstruction of the choirs, in which stained-glass windows were installed in their high windows, was also inspired by the symbolism of light. On the main axis of the temple at the highest level, the central place is occupied by the image of the Virgin Mary , to the right and left of which are represented the images of the apostles and prophets. Below the Virgin Mary, on the main axis in the center, Saint Remigius is depicted, surrounded by images of his successors, Archbishops of Reims , first canonized and then non-canonized, right up to Henry I of France , who died in 1175, shortly before the stained-glass windows.
An illustration of how, under the guidance of bishops , the communion with the Divine is performed in the sacrament of the Eucharist , established by Jesus Christ, we see on the large Crucifixion of Christ adorning the central window of the gallery of the basilica. At the foot of the cross is depicted the holy cup where the Blood of Christ gathers.
The remaining windows at this level are large colored compositions without any metaphorical image, in which small images of ancient characters are pasted, probably taken from the windows of the apses that existed before (approximately 1140s) - bishops adjoin randomly with kings from Old Testament and holy virgins.

The central triad of stained-glass windows in choirs was renovated in the 20th century. The restoration was carried out by the hereditary Reims glassworks master Jacques Simon in 1953-1956, while several original fragments were added in the southern apsidiol .

Also in the XX century, two new works appeared in the basilica - a rose window on the northern facade of the work of Jacques Simon (1958) and a southern window made by his adopted son Charles Mark, who adorned him with luminous doves, symbolizing the legend of the Holy Glass (1976) .

Previously, tapestries , made in 1531 by order of Archbishop Robert de Lenoncourt, depicting episodes of the life of Saint Remigius, were hung in the choirs. Today, these 10 tapestries are on permanent display at the Saint-Remy Museum , located next to the basilica within the walls of the former abbey.

In our time, the altar has lost its original appearance. A high red marble altar was brought here in 1803 from an abandoned Franciscan chapel. It dates from the 18th century, as well as other church utensils and a music stand. After the Revolution, the temple received various furnishings taken from other churches that ceased to exist, and this is considered some kind of compensation for the lost church property.

A number of Reims archbishops and members of the royal families are buried in the basilica, in particular the Frankish king Karloman , the brother of Charlemagne and the king of France Louis IV .

In the 1660s, the basilica's choirs were decorated with a fence, which was erected instead of a massive stone arcade resting on columns of red and black marble. Inside the fence is the crypt of St. Remigius, which was erected in 1847 at the direction of the Reims Archbishop Cardinal Tom-Marie-Joseph Joseph Gousse in exchange for the monument destroyed by the revolutionaries. The crypt was created in the Renaissance style , which allowed the use of surviving sculptures made in 1533-1537 by order of Archbishop Reims Robert de Lenoncourt. The sculpture group “The Baptism of Clovis” is decorated with statues of the twelve peers of France - Archbishop Reims holds his pastoral cross, Bishop Lana holds the Saints Glassworks , Bishop Langres holds a scepter , Bishop Beauvais holds a tunic , Bishop of Chalons holds a ring, Bishop of Néuillon-Bouillon the crown, the duke of Normandy - the heraldic banner, the duke of Aquitaine - the battle standard, the count of Toulouse - spurs, the count of Flanders - the sword and, finally, the count of Champagne - the banner . The choice of such a design shows that the coronation ceremony , in which the listed vassals of the crown were the main characters, has very deep roots in the act of baptism of Clovis.

The wonderful Saint Glassblower, used in the ceremony of anointing the kings of France, was kept in this crypt. She left the walls of the temple only on the day of the coronation ceremony and only under the zealous guard that accompanied the procession to the Reims Cathedral .

Despite the fact that the phial with the holy oil was smashed to smithereens in 1793 , the relics of the saint were managed to be preserved. They are in a crab made in 1896 of gilded bronze with enamel painting, which is presented every year in a novel and sweeps around the church after the solemn service on the day of memory of St. Remigius.

• Basilica on the site "Religious architecture of the West" (Fr.)
• Basilica on the site of the conference of the Catholic bishops of France (fr.)
• Basilica on the site of the Reims Archdiocese (French)