The Jewel of Light That Is Sainte-Chapelle

If you can believe it, the sacred space you see in the image before you is not a cathedral. It is not even a church as we normally understand one. It is, in fact, technically, only a chapel.

The holy monument is the mighty and mystical Sainte-Chapelle, which glistens like a wondrous jewel nestled in the heart of an island called the Ile de la Cité in the Seine River in Paris. This exquisite chapel with walls of stained glass was built between the years 1238 and 1248 AD.

It is one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture imaginable, having been created during the 100-year period that produced nearly all of the world’s most exquisite Gothic structures. It is the smaller cousin to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (on the other side of the Ile de la Cité).

You might be surprised to know that the chapel is a monumental reliquary, that is, a place to hold a relic. And not just some ordinary relic: Sainte-Chapelle was built to house Jesus’ Crown of Thorns, which the King St. Louis IX brought back from Jerusalem in 1239 after the Seventh Crusade.

The Crown of Thorns was stolen during the French Revolution (1791-94), but thankfully, it was not destroyed. Then Napoleon, remarkably, gave it back to the Catholic Church in 1801. It has been housed at Notre Dame Cathedral since then.

Also remarkably, the Paris Fire Brigade saved the relic from the 2019 fire at Notre Dame!

Such massive walls of stained glass were made possible by the medieval innovation of the external flying buttress which allowed church walls to be thinner to accommodate great panels of glass.

Sadly, Sainte-Chapelle did not fare as well as the holy relic it was built to hold. It was vandalized in the French Revolution and then “de-commissioned” when the vandals outlawed religion.

Today, it is not even a functioning chapel. It is a museum operated by the French state.

But a glorious one indeed.

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle.