![]() ![]() ![]() Following the murders in 1793 of King Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, their thrones disappeared and the royal altars were reduced to marble slabs, stripped bare of all ornaments and sacramentals. The French Revolution (1789 – 1795) marked a radical rejection of Throne and Altar. ![]() Processions in honor of this saint or that martyr added to the enactment of Christian joy. ![]() On Sunday mornings, a day of worship, the wild church bells rang out throughout Paris. The faithful loved these sanctuaries of beauty, the colored glass of Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle, Saint-Denis and Saint Germain l’Auxerrois, the marble statuary of Saint Germain des Pres, Saint Joseph des Carmes, and Saint Eustache the carved woodwork of Saint Gervais. The details of stone, colored glass, marble, gold, and wood, each sculpted into a fantastic imagery of animals, plants, devils, and saints were their gifts to the Virgin Mother and God the Father. These churches and cathedrals were the dream world of the Christian Middle Ages. The houses (later churches) where the people worshiped their God had a main altar facing the Rising Sun of the East where ordained priests celebrated the commemorative sacrament of the Eucharist. Before the Revolution, popular religious faith was a mix of traditional beliefs in a triune God (the trinity): God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each glorified within a colorful and paradoxical context of myths, superstition, and miracles. ![]()
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