PŒNE QUADRAGEN
VALE VIATOR ET VALERE
MANES IOBE
A modern tablet states that the first confraternity established in France under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception was founded at S. Séverin in 1311, but the chapels used by the association have disappeared.
The church contains no furniture of any value artistically, except perhaps, the organ and wrought-iron gallery, erected in 1747 to replace an earlier instrument of 1512; the original organ, given in 1358 by Maître Regnaud de Douy, the master of the parish schools, is described as une bones orgues et bien ordenées.
A good deal of the stained glass is of the 15th and 16th centuries, and bears the figures and arms of the donors (some of whom appear by their long robes to have been magistrates), accompanied by their wives and families. The subjects are the usual ones taken from the New Testament, or from the lives of the Saints; but a few are somewhat out of the beaten track, as for instance: Two families of numerous members accompanied by, or superintended by S. Peter and S. Andrew; S. Michael clad as a warrior bearing a shield upon which are emblazoned the arms of France; S. Geneviève holding her demon-extinguished taper which an Angel relights; S. Anthony with his staff and bell, and holy fire under his feet, which is in dangerous proximity to his faithful porkling; and lastly, S. Thomas of Canterbury celebrating mass, while his murderers fall upon him with their swords. One of the chapels of S. Séverin was dedicated to the memory of the martyred archbishop.
Several modern artists have decorated the side-chapels—Alexandre Hesse, Cornu and Flandrin; but the student of the latter painter must go to S. Vincent-de-Paul and S. Germain-des-Prés to fully appreciate this great master of religious art.
The symbols upon the slab mentioned above are very similar to those found in the cemetery of S. Marcel which occupied the site of the abbey of S. Geneviève. In the Breviary of Paris we read, in the office for the Translation of S. Marcel, that his body was put in a chapel, aedicula, named after S. Clement, and from which the Saint had driven out an enormous serpent. Coming from a neighbouring wood the monster had seized upon the remains of a rich woman who had been a great sinner, and was regaling himself therewith, when Marcel came to the rescue, and chasing him away three miles, forbade him ever to return. This miracle was popular upon the churches of Paris, and is still to be seen on the centre pier of the Porte S. Anne of Notre-Dame and in the voussure of the Porte Rouge.