Paray-le-Monial
A town of five thousand inhabitants in the Department of Sâone-Loire, Diocese of Autun, France. It is indisputable that Paray (Paredum; Parodium) existed before the monks who give it its surname of Le Monial, for when Count Lambert of Chalon, together with his wife Adelaide and his friend Mayeul de Cluny, founded there in 973 the celebrated Benedictine priory, the borough had already been constituted, with its ædiles and communal privileges. At that time an ancient temple was dedicated to the Mother of God (Charter of Paray). The Cluny monks were, 999-1789, lords of the town.
Protestantism made many proselytes here, but in 1618 the Jesuits were summoned, and after a century there remained only a few Protestant families, who have long since disappeared. In order to complete the work, Père Paul de Barry, the author of “Pensez-y-bien”, in 1678 brought thither the Visitandines.
Paray-le-Monial has become a much-frequented place of pilgrimage since 1873, as many as 100,000 pilgrims arriving yearly from all parts of Europe and America. The most venerated spot is the Chapel of the Visitation, where most of the apparitions to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque took place. Next comes the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in charge of secular chaplains, formerly the church of the monks, which is one of the most beautiful monuments of Cluniac architecture (tenth or eleventh century). The Hotel de Ville, in Renaissance style, the façade of which is adorned with a large statue of the Blessed Virgin, is also one of the historical monuments. Pilgrimage is also made to the Hieron or temple-palace, erected by a layman in honour of the Eucharistic King, where there is a very curious collection of pictures and objects of art bearing on the Holy Eucharist. Despite the difficulties of the present religious situation in France, Paray still possesses a number of communities or monasteries which justify its surname. Moreover, with this town are connected the associations the object of which is the cult of the Sacred Heart, such as the Apostleship of Prayer, the Archconfraternity of the Holy Hour (estatlished at Paray itself in 1829 by Père Robert Debrosse), and the Communion of Reparation, organized in 1854 by Père Victor Drevon. The latter maintains its headquarters at Paray.
From a secular point of view the town is unimportant, but its religious glory is abundant. It is more than enough for its honour that it should be, as Leo XIII said in his Brief of Coronation of Notre Dame de Romay (25 July, 1896), “Cœ;lo gratissimum oppidum”, “a town very dear to heaven”.
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CHEVALIER, Cartulaire du Paray-le-Monial (Paris, 1890); SACKUR, Cluniazenser, I (1882), 241 sq.; II (1894), 40-92.
JOSEPH ZELLE Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to Fr. John Hilkert and St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Paray-le-Monial
a little village in the eastern part of France, has become noted in recent times as the seat of a sacred shrine dedicated to a virgin who is reputed to have led a most exemplary life, and was canonized in 1864. All manner of miracles are reputed to have been wrought at the shrine of Paray-le- Monial, and so general became the enthusiasm over these wonderful (!) reports that pilgrimages were regularly organized not only in France, where the checkered fate of the last war would naturally turn the lower classes to superstitious veneration and faith in the miraculous intervention of departed saints, but also in Belgium, and in Protestant England and America. In 1873 pilgrims from all points of the compass flocked to Parav- le-Monial. Of course the English and American pilgrims attracted special attention, for it was supposed that in neither of these countries could any superstitious veneration be fostered and quickened. The general supposition of Protestants, and all who disbelieve ecclesiastical miracles (q.v.), is that the Ultramontanes are seeking to unite the lower classes of all countries under the papal banner, and, by awakening in them a sympathy for the Romish cause, to undermine the opposition which has developed against Jesuitism and Ultramontanism at the different European centers of influence. Inasmuch as the Jesuits and Ultramontanes generally have encouraged the people in these pilgrimages, the supposition seems reasonable.
In the article MARIE A LA COQUE we have already given the personal history of this remarkable Romish saint. It remains to be added here that the Romanists of Paray-le-Monial claim to possess her bones, and that over them stands the altar erected to her memory. A correspondent of the New York Tribune, who was an eyewitness, in September, 1873, of the arrival and reception of a great body of English pilgrims a motley throng of men and women priests and laymen, old and young, rich and poor thus describes the saint’s remains and their costly shrine:
She lies stretched upon an altar in the splendid chapel which her devotees have endowed. When the bones already referred to were gathered up from the grave in which they had lain for two hundred years, they were committed to the charge of a cunning artificer, who reverently connected them as far as they would go with gold wire. Head, feet, and hands were formed out of wax and attached to the bones, and the body was wrapped up in wadding, with an outward covering of cloth of gold, and laid upon a magnificent marble altar enclosed in a rich case of bronze-dore, and studded with precious stones. The eyes of the wax figure, which are made of enamel, are half open. With its right hand it presses upon its breast a burning heart of pure gold, and in its left hand it holds a branch of silver lilies. The chapel itself is almost oppressive from the richness of its decoration. The walls are hidden behind the pictures and the banners which the faithful have deposited there. The vault is of azure, studded with stars of gold. The pavement of the church is of marble, while that of the sanctuary is set with stones in imitation of carpet-patterns. Before the wax figure burn constantly, day and night, sixteen golden lamps set with precious stones. One of the lamps burns for the preservation of the faith in Belgium, another for the conversion of England, a third represents the Order of the Sacred Heart, and the rest are severally devoted to similar intentions.’ After this week the number of lamps will be increased by one, which the English pilgrims have brought with them, and for the endowment of which a sum of money has been invested. As things go, it takes a capital sum of forty pounds to endow a lamp with oil in perpetuity.
SEE PILGRIMAGE.