Saint-Vincent de Paul Church

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The Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Église Saint-Vincent-de-Paul) is a church in the 10th arrondissement of Paris dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul. It gives its name to the Quartier Saint-Vincent-de-Paul around it. It was built between 1824 and 1844 on the site where an earlier priory of Saint-Lazare had been located, at which Saint Vincent de Paul had founded the congregation of the Priests of the Mission, known as the Lazarists. The architect who completed the building was Jacques-Ignace Hittorff, whose other major works included the Gare du Nord railway station. The church is in the Neo-classical style.

History

Site and Patron

In the 12th century, the site was occupied by a Leper Colony, located in a marshy area on the road between Paris and the Basilica of Saint-Denis. It became the home and workplace of Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), who devoted his life to aiding the poor and sick. In 1625 he founded the Congregation of the Priests of the Mission, whose member became known as Lazarists. He also created a congregation known as the Daughters of Charity and, in 1638, began a project for aiding abandoned infants. He was beatified in 1729 and canonised as a saint in 1737. The site was occupied by his creation, the Congregation of the Mission, until the French Revolution.

Hospital and Prison

A hospital for lepers was founded during the time of Saint Vincent de Paul. Shortly before the French Revolution, this building was transformed into the Saint-Lazare Prison, which rapidly filled to overflowing during the Revolution. Notable prisoners before the Revolution included the playwright and diplomat Pierre Beaumarchais and the social theorist Henri de Saint-Simon. During the Revolution it held the poet André Chénier, who went to the guillotine; the painter Hubert Robert, who escaped the guillotine after the death of Robespierre, and was named director of the Louvre museum; and the Marquis de Sade, who also escaped the guillotine after the fall of Robespierre. Later prisoners included the spy Mata Hari. The last structures of the prison were not demolished until 1935.

Construction of the church (1824–1844)

In the early 19th century the population of the area grew rapidly, and the church project was begun. The church's design and the initial phases of its construction were made by architect Jean-Baptiste Lepère, a French architect of modest reputation. He was a member of the committee of artists and scientists, who travelled with Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt, where he drew the temples and monuments, and helped make the first study of the feasibility of the Suez Canal. The first stone of the church was laid in August 1824 in the presence of the préfet de la Seine Gaspard de Chabrol and the archbishop of Paris Mgr de Quélen. Work proceeded slowly, and was repeatedly halted, particularly due to a lack of credit following the 1830 Revolution.

In 1831, the project was taken over by Lepère's son-in-law, Jacques Hittorff, whose most famous later work was the Gare du Nord railway station. Hittorff modified the initial plans, adding two bell towers. The church was sited overlooking Place Franz Liszt, at the top of a long stairway. Hittorff added two ramps, now made into gardens, so that horse-drawn carriages could access the front of the church. The building opened for worship on 25 October

The new church was sited to overlook large square, It was preceded by two large ramps in a horseshoe form, which allowed carriages to access the square in front of the church. The square has now been transformed into gardens. A long stairway leads up to the monumental neo-classical front. flanked by two bell towers. The portico of the church features twelve classical columns, with Ionic capitals, symbolizing the Twelve Apostles. The triangular fronton above is filled with high-relief sculpture which depicts the glorification of Saint Vincent de Paul. It was made by sculptor Charles-François Leboeuf-Nanteuil (1792–1865), and shows the Saint flanked by two angels, representing the virtues of Faith and Charity. The front is flanked by two bell towers.

The church's basilical plan evokes several grand schemes of religious architecture without specifically copying one in particular. Above the portico, a feature borrowed from Greek temple architecture, is a pediment sculpted by Charles-François Lebœuf-Nanteuil on the subject of "The Apotheosis of Saint Vincent-de-Paul": the saint is glorified, surrounded by figures symbolising his saintly actions: a missionary, a galley slave, and some Daughters of Charity devoting themselves to children or to healing the sick. The decoration of the Lady Chapel, in the apse added later at the back (in eight panels), is by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1884–89). The Calvary shown on the main altar is by François Rude.

The building suffered during the Paris Commune: the bell towers were hit by seven shells, and the terrace and ramps by more than twenty, all fired from the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

The Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul is close to the Eurostar and mainline station Gare du Nord, and so is twinned with St Pancras Old Church, a church close to St Pancras railway station in London where Eurostar services terminate. This twinning was inaugurated on 11 December 2007 with a bilingual service at St Pancras Old Churc