The Val de Grace.

Miracles Never Cease: The Val-de-Grace

By Paul Jensi

Paris Kiosque - April 2001 - Volume 8, Number 4
Copyright (c) 2001 Paul Jensi - Used with permission.

---

Miracles Never Cease: The Val-de-Grace

Val de Grâce
1, place Alphonse-Laveran
Port Royal / Bus 27, 83, 91

Miracles Never Cease

This church rising up from a cloistered neighborhood near the center of Paris resembles a fairy tale castle and with reason: the chapel was built as a thank you present in a story that came straight from a fable.

Like all fairy tales, this one begins with a princess. Anne d'Autriche was born in 1601, the eldest daughter to the King of Spain, and became a Queen at thirteen when she married Louis XIII, the King of France. Unfortunately, she did not live happily ever after. She lived alone in a country that was not her own, ignored by her husband, a King who did not even put up the pretense of loving her. His Majesty preferred to spend his time in the company of his most trusted advisor and Anne's greatest adversary, the Cardinal Richelieu. The power the Cardinal held over the King became evident when Marie de Medicis, the Queen Mother, became afraid of the Cardinal's growing power and asked her son to exile Richelieu, and the King chose to banish his mother instead. The Cardinal then declared war against Anne's brother, Philippe IV of Spain, and accused Anne of spying for the enemy. Anne, still just a teenager, was trapped in an unhappy marriage and could not turn to her family without being accused of treason, so she looked to the church. She began visiting a Benedictine convent so often that she had her own room and the abbess became her closest friend.

Sadly, as Anne grew older, her burden did not lighten. Perhaps the fact that grieved her most was after twenty-three years of marriage she still had no children. Her husband pressured her and the French nation looked to her expectantly for an heir to the throne, but above all she wanted a child for herself, to keep her company and give her the affection she lacked in her marriage. The problem was that following twenty-three barren years, she'd reached the age of thirty-six. In modern times, pregnancy for a woman over thirty-five is considered a risk--in 1637, it was considered impossible.

If this story is to be a fairy tale, then Saint Fiacre is its magician.A humble monk who had left Ireland to find solitude in the forests outside Paris, Brother Fiacre built an oratory in honor of the Virgin Mary where he met those in need of shelter, advice and, on occasion, healing. One night, the Blessed Virgin came to him in a dream. In his vision, Mary appeared carrying a baby which she held out to him saying, "The child I hold is not mine, but the son God wants to give France." The Virgin went on to say that for this to pass, the Queen was to pay homage to her in three churches: Notre-Dame-de-Paris and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, both in Paris, but also Notre-Dame-de-la-Visitation in the town of Sept, nearly 2,000 miles away. At the ecumenical hearing to verify the authenticity of his claim, Fiacre was able to describe the church in the south of France stone by stone--despite never having been there in his life.

Yet even happier proof of his vision came one year later. On September 5 1638, Anne d'Autriche, the Queen of France gave birth to a son. Louis XIV was christened Dieudonné, French for "Gift from God", but became known as "the Grand Monarch" because, as France's longest reigning king, he was succeeded not by his son, but by his grandson.

After the birth of her son and heir to the throne, Anne showed her gratitude to Mary by building a church on the land of the Benedictine convent she had so often visited. Louis XIV himself laid the cornerstone for the Val-de-Grâce in a ceremony that took place April 1st 1645. And *then* they lived happily ever after...

In a historical footnote, after a life full of miracles the Church canonized Brother Fiacre. The patron saint of gardeners and cabs, his name is also the French word for "horse and buggy". The monk became their patron because his popularity was so large after he had intervened in the birth ofa King that plaques bearing his face were attached to every carriage in Paris: so many that the carriages themselves were called "fiacres".

---

A Bit of History

• 1621: Anne of Austria has the Val-Profond ("Deep Valley") convent built
• 1645: Louis XIV places first stone of the Val-de-Grâce when he is seven years old
• 1667: Construction finished
• 1793: During the French Revolution, the neighboring abbey is converted into a medical school and remains so to this day.

---

Inside Out

The best way to approach the church is the rue Val-de-Grâce, where the temple emerges from between the two buildings at the end of the street and blossoms like a rose into its full glory. Architects Mansart and Lemercier designed the church, which is Paris's best example of baroque architecture (curving lines, elaborate ornamentation and harmony of different elements define this style). The statue standing in the courtyard is that of Baron Larrey (as sculpted by David d'Angers in 1843), who was Napoleon's personal surgeon and whose presence reminds the visitor that the abbey became a school for military doctors soon after the French Revolution.

After admiring the dome that crowns the church, climb the stairs that lead to the front door but don't enter without first noticing the inscription over the columns: JESV NASCENTI VIRGINIQ MATRI. The Latin text means "To the newborn Jesus and Virgin Mother", a reference to the Queen's gratitude regarding the miraculous birth of her own son. Once inside, the first thing the visitor will notice is the elaborate painting in the interior of the dome. Called "The Glory of the Blessed" (by Mignard, 1663), it depicts over 200 people paying homage to the Trinity, including an angel with the Book of Life and two figures representing Anne of Austria and her husband Louis XIII.

Just under the dome, the bas-reliefs by Michel Anguier represent the virtues of the Virgin: Simplicity is carrying a dove, Innocence is washing her hands and with them stand Kindness and Harmony. Beneath the virtues, a nativity (Anguier, 1869) reminds guests that the church is a monument to the miracle of birth. Saint Anne's chapel (to the left of the altar) once stored the urns that held the hearts of France's royal families, but they were transferred to another church in 1696 where they stayed until the Revolution when painters bought them to acquire a special shade of red, impossible to achieve through other means.

Saint Louis's chapel waits on the opposite side of the church and was where the nuns prayed, which explains the four statues representing Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Walk through the door in the chapel to access the cloister, where one can see Anne of Austria's beautiful pavilion resting on top of ionic columns.

---

In 1990 Paul quit his job in the United States and sold everything he had in exchange for a one-way ticket to Europe and a train pass. Figuring he would ride the rails until his money ran out, he voyaged through most European capitals before marrying the first French girl he met and moving to Paris in November of that year. Since then he published 123 articles and posted 192 of his photographs during his one-year tenure as Chief English writer at AOL France's Digital Paris Web site. His current goal of walking on every street in the city has revealed not only the importance of comfortable footwear but also the splendor of the city he calls his own (despite copyright infringement laws). He is currently working on ``Paris Misguided'', an unguide that will help him spread that love around. He can be contacted via PJensi@aol.com.