"Papes, Prelats, Princes, Rois, Empereurs
L'ont au cellier mis avec reuerence,
Ce Vin de vie efface les erreurs,
Et donne a l'Ame une saincte esperance."
This strange design reminds one somewhat of a little chapel near Partenkirchen, Tyrol. Up the hill is a Way of the Cross and at the summit a tiny chapel containing a life-size figure of our Lord, behind a grating. At his feet is a pool of water—I imagine with some miraculous powers; a cup fastened by a chain allows the passer-by to drink thereof. But the strange part is the supply of water which comes from our Lord's wounds, and fills the pool—symbolic of His being the living water, the well from which whosoever drinketh obtaineth everlasting life. The idea is somewhat materialistic and startling to the mundane dweller in cities, but to the simple-minded inhabitants of Tyrol it is full of poetry.
The oldest glass in S. Étienne is in the upper windows of the apse, representing the apparitions of Christ, to the disciples on the road to Emmäus, to the Magdalen, to S. Peter, and to the three Maries. In the western rose window the Eternal Father is vested in the insignia of the Pope, that common device of 16th century Ultramontanism. Far better is the design of a window on the north side of the nave: the Eternal Father seated in glory, with the book of the seven seals on His knees; the Lamb opens it, the four-and-twenty Elders sit around, and Angels pour the Divine anger from chalices upon the earth. The donors were evidently a large family, for they fill up all the lower part of the window, one behind the other, devoutly kneeling upon their knees. Some little scenes from the legend of S. Claude are charming in colour and design; so, too, are those from the life of the Virgin.
In one of the chapels of the nave we see a family repast, symbolising the wedding feast of the Gospel. The banquet is prepared, but the guests are not ready; one is going to fetch his wife, another takes an excursion to his country house, a third is inspecting a couple of oxen—but all beg to be excused.
The glass of S. Étienne was given by enthusiastic parishioners; indeed, so much rivalry took place amongst them, to fill the church with richly coloured windows, that the authorities were obliged to restrain their eagerness, and to point out that the bells, the porch, and other parts of the building required their aid.
It was at S. Étienne that Monseigneur Sibour, archbishop of Paris, was assassinated in 1857, during the neuvaine[65] of S. Geneviève. The procession had travelled round the church, and was re-entering the nave, when the assassin, a discontented priest, rushed at the prelate and stabbed him. He was carried into the presbytery, but died soon after.
The main attraction of S. Étienne is the tomb of S. Geneviève. Long before the Panthéon ceased to be the church of the maid of Nanterre, it was to S. Étienne that the faithful journeyed to pray for her intercession, and to have their belongings laid upon her coffin. Here, any day, but especially during the octave of her fête, you may see people bringing handkerchiefs, rosaries, crosses, towels, etc., to be placed in the shrine, in order to carry the Saint's blessing and help to the sick and the suffering at home. The stone coffin is said to have been found in the crypt of the abbey church during its demolition in 1801, but whether it be the original one in which Saint Geneviève was buried in 511 it is impossible to say, as it is so surrounded by ornamental ironwork that its workmanship cannot be studied; but the effect of the little chapel containing this tombeau, with its lights and flowers and stained-glass, is very charming, and during the neuvaine, when the church is ablaze with candles, and hundreds of people font queue to the shrine, it is a sight not easily forgotten.
The history of this culte is elaborately worked out. S. Geneviève was buried, it is asserted upon pretty good authority, in the crypt of the old abbey church of the Holy Apostles.
When the Normans overran the country, the monks took up the body of their patroness, and carried it off to distant parts in a wooden box. Peace being restored, the religious went back to their abbey and repaired the various tombs, among others those of S. Prudence and S. Céran, Bishop of Paris; but the remains of S. Geneviève were not replaced in the stone coffin in which they had previously been laid. A splendid châsse was made for their reception, and until the Revolution, upon every occasion that the good citizens of Paris fell into any grievous trouble, the reliquary was carried about, up and down the "mountain," in and out of the tortuous streets, as a means of gaining the intercession of the patron Saint. And no less honoured was the empty tomb; the faithful paid their respects to that, after having visited the châsse.