In 1534, Ignatius and his companions went to the church of Sainte Pierre in the village of Montmartre north of Paris, and took vows to work together as a company. It was an important moment because this band of brothers soon became the first Jesuits. When my wife and I went to Paris a couple of weeks ago to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, I was eager to visit this spot.
On the day we visited, trucks and cars were parked in front of the church, and the small courtyard was filled with booths for a street fair. We were stunned when we walked inside. An experimental video with some disturbing imagery was playing on a screen in front of the altar, accompanied by a loud and harsh sound track. The video was part of an arts festival. Either the pastor or a friend of his had created it; our French wasn’t good enough to fully understand the explanation from a somewhat chagrined church secretary.
This wasn’t what I was expecting. I was disappointed and a little angry. But then Ignatius and his companions didn’t get what they were expecting either when they made their vows. They thought that God would send them to serve in the Holy Land. They implemented Plan B—putting themselves at the disposal of the pope—when travel to the Holy Land proved impossible.
Things change. Montmartre was a quiet village on a hill overlooking Paris when the companions made their vows in 1534. No doubt they wanted a quiet place to pray and reflect. Today Montmartre is a lively, noisy place with throngs of Parisians and tourists enjoying the restaurants, cafes, and art galleries. It’s a place well-suited to the Ignatian spirit.
We went back to Sainte Pierre a few days later when the arts festival was over. The video was gone. The church was quiet. The light was soft. It was a good time to thank God for what happened here in 1534.
Thanks Jim, for sharing your experiences here.
it reminded me …I too had a similar experience in reaching and finding the entrance to the Crypt of St Peter’s church at Montmartre. My companion and myself, spent a lot of time, trying to locate this crypt and asked several people where it was. No one seemed to know anything about what happened in 1534. It was in 1998, when we visited it. Disappointed and almost at the point of giving up our efforts, we were returning walking along a crowded road. There suddenly we noticed an iron pillar of about 5 foot tall, standing on the side walk. We stood to see what it was about. There to our great surprise and relief, we read,’ Here was born the Society of Jesus’. We joked, looking around where was it born, here amidst the shops and noisy crowds. Then a few feet away, we spotted a door and we hesitatingly, opened and it led us down to the crypt. It was scary too, for us new visitors there. In the quiet of the crypt, we met a group of scholastics gathered to pray. They said, they made a pilgrimage to the Crypt that day as it was their recollection day. We were so happy to meet them and more so, for the most unexpected way we found the Montmartre Crypt where our Society was born, in the form of St Ignatius and his 6 companions taking the their first Vows to serve Christ.
So insignificant was the look the spot had, i said to myself, that is why we are supposed to be the least Society of all Societies..!
Jeyaraj Veluswamy,SJ
Kolkata
I was so happy to see this article. My son and his wife recently went to
Paris. One of the things that impressed him the most was St.Pierre’s.
They were sitting at a cafe across the way and noticed many tour guides
rushing right past the church.Tom and Debbie were attracted by the ex-
terior and decided to visit it and were so impressed by its beauty they could not understand why it was by-passed by the guides. I down-loaded the article and now they know more about its significance.
Thank you so much for t he serendipitous article.
There are a couple of statements that really resonate with me in this post: “Things change” and “It was a good time to thank God for what happened here in 1534”. I am thankful that change is part of our lives and especially for St. Ignatius and the Jesuits for Ignatian Spirituality has given me a greater understanding of who I am in God’s world.
God bless.