THE ‘SACRE COEUR’ PARIS’S GREAT CHURCH TO-MORROW’S CONSECRATION

From Our Own Correspondent. Paris, Monday.

One of the most impressive religious events within recent times takes place on Thursday at Montmartre. It is the consecration of the Basilica dedicated to the Sacred Heart. This unique ceremony, performed with all the magnificence of the Roman ritual, means something far more devotional and of far deeper sentiment than a simple act of Christian piety. It is for French believers not merely the fulfilment of a vow of French Catholics to the Sacred Heart, a token in stone of reverent gratitude to Him who died, sacrificed for His love of humanity at large, but especially a thanksgiving for special favour and Divine protection of France at moments of seemingly irreparable disaster. The “Sacré Coeur” of Montmartre is considered to be a national offering for the miraculous intervention of the Saviour.

Visitors nearing Paris from any direction can see afar off the dome of the Basilica enthroned on the summit of the mount, standing out boldly against the sky in its curious architectural features. These have often been criticised, but, if the design is not perfection, the church crowning the hill rises grandly impressive at a distance, a huge pile of granite and marble, destined to defy the hand of time. Montmartre has been considered, since the pleasure-seeking days of the Second Empire, as the home of Bohemia, the resort of revellers, seekers of light amusements in the night “cabarets,” the haunt of singers, poets, and artists’ models.

But there are other aspects of life on the Mount of Martyrs. There are the busy throngs of workers who daily flock into Paris, and ascend the hill at night when their labour is done; and frequent pilgrimages of worshippers who come to pray at the shrine of the Sacred Heart on the chalky height that guards Paris to the north like the tower of an ancient burgh, where the spirit of Saint Denys keeps watch and ward over the sleeping city far below. Centuries ago a superior of the Royal Abbey of Saint Denys described Montmartre as the new “eye and heart of France.” “It is,” said the reverend superior, “the most holy and sacred spot in the land of France, a mount more precious than Lebanon. Those who do not venerate Montmartre are neither French nor Christians.”

This is the keynote to the glorification of the historic hill. It is the Divine predilection for the worship of the Sacred Heart, there where the founder of Christianity in France was beheaded. For the Church of the “Sacré Coeur” is built near the spot where, according to tradition, Monseigneur Saint Denys and his devout followers had their heads cut off because the martyr refused to sacrifice in the Temple of Mercury, and “the warm blood of the victims to paganism flowed steaming down the hillside beneath the temple.”