So Begins a Trés Bell Year

Our neighborhood cathedral turns eight hundred and fifty this year.

Here on the fifth floor, with our windows open, we often listen to the bells of Notre Dame (Our Lady) from four blocks away, and had thought them lovely each time.

But what do we know? 

Not being experts, we didn't know they were out of tune. After all, the last time the ten big bells were "replaced" was during the French Revolution of 1789, when they were destroyed as part of the wave of secular sentiment. Their eventual nineteenth century replacements were four chimes, which everyone except us knew were discordant.

So, to celebrate Our Lady's birthday, the church hierarchy commissioned nine new bronze bells, celebrated this last weekend amid much pomp, incense, music, and ceremony, including an appearance by Paris Archbishop Andre Armand Vingt-Trois.

Many masses were held, at which the gargantuan bells were displayed in the nave of the immense gothic cathedral. Between masses, the devout and the merely curious mingled together, inspecting, touching, and admiring the huge bronze bells, including the six-and-a-half ton bourdon (great bell) bell named for Marie, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth.

Marie will be hoisted to the gothic south tower by herself, and the other eight, Jean-Marie, Maurice, Benoit-Joseph, Steven, Marcel, Denis, Anne-Genevieve and Gabriel, will be mounted in the north tower, joining another bourdon, Emmanuel, which has been there since the seventeenth century. 

The installation is expected to be finished by March 23, when they will ring together for the first time just before Palm Sunday, the beginning of what Christians call Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem, where, in the following week, he was tried, sentenced, put to death on a cross on Good Friday, and then, the story continues, resurrected on Easter, in the manner of previous fertility gods like the Greek Dionysus, the Mesopotamian Tammuz, or the Egyptian Amun.

 

Notre Dame itself stands on ground sacred long before the Christian Era began. The Cathedral sits at what Pulitzer Prize-winning architect Allan Temko called "the organic heart of Paris." And, "the eastern end of the island [Ile de la Cite] has been a repository of idealisms since men first built a tabernacle there of branches and reeds. From the floor of the Seine upward, there must be scores of buried pre-Christian shrines: first the fragile Gallic sanctuaries of wood, and then a whole series of Roman temples in stone. Finally, high on the accumulated mound, so close to the surface that they seem incredibly recent, is a collection of Christian edifices, resting directly behind and all around Notre-Dame." (Temko, Allan, Notre-Dame of Paris.  A Time Incorporated book, New York, 1962, page 11.) 

It's a powerful spot. Witness last Saturday, the day the celebratory masses began, which was blustery, with intermittent hail showers. Not quite cold enough to snow, but definitely some bitter winds. Then, as if to signify that somebody up there liked what was going on in the cathedral, the sun came out just long enough to help send this message to the assembled worshipers at the exact moment the afternoon service began.

Comments

[Anna]

Welcome back! Missed your playful voice, both written and visual — ate it up this morning like a fresh, warm croissant.

(In the last photo — that's our God there, saying hello!)

[Bruce Moody]

Dear Kaaren and Richard,

Thank you so much for the intimate record of the restoration and replacement of the bells, and for showing us them one by one. They each have such character, such speaking personality, don't they?

You might tell your friends about a wonderful movie, Andrei Rublev, by the Russian director Tarkovsky. It shows how those original bells were caste back in the middle ages. It's a remarkable movie with a wonderful boy playing the engineer of the bells. Fascinating.

Love ya,

Bruce

[Kaaren and Richard]

Hi, Anna:

We figured it was a message from somebody's god. Not ostentatious, but calmly gorgeous. It was fun to be around for a once-in-850-years photo.

Glad to be back and to be your friends.

Love,

K and R

[Kaaren and Richard]

Thank you, Bruce. They do all ring differently (that was part of the first mass), but they each ring true.

Hope the movie is on Netflix.

Hugs,

--R and K

[Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore]

Dear Parisian messengers:

How wonderful to have you back! And this post just veritably rings with a potential tintinabulation that resounds all the way to Phily! (You don't get to use that word very often, thank you EP, and not that Ezra fella, who hung out across the street from Our Lady, and wed its lady...) The clear prose, full of tidbit facts of use, and Kaarenesque sheen of its own... And the photos! The first and fifth photos of Sir Richard (let's knight him!) seem right out of Rembrandt. The height, the depth, the rich dark browns, the concentration on the faces lit so Rembrandtically, etc.

Well, I searched my poems for rainbows, and found this one...

SEVERAL RAINBOWS

Several rainbows from various things
that fly in great arcs in all directions
illuminating walls and floors with their

spectral harmony their almost audible
scales of color beyond the visible

wake up denizens of another universe
to intense blue daylight
______________________________
11/10/07
(from The Fire Eater's Lunchbreak, The Ecstatic Exchange, 2008)

[Felice]

Hi Kaaren & Richard,

This was sent to me by an old friend, Elaina Zuker who lives in Canada. For some reason, I haven't received a newsletter for quite a while, so I signed up anew.
Richard your photos are so wonderful! And of course the writing is always so delicious too.

I absolutely loved the opportunity to see this extraordinary event.

Thanks,
Felice

[Kaaren Kitchell & Richard Beban]

Daniel:

Many thanks. We may have to make you Laureate of this page, since you have an occasional poem for each event we celebrate. We admire prolific, teamed with great work.

Thanks for recognizing the inspiration for the photographs. Notre Dame has a "no flash" and "no tripod" policy, so these had to be shot handheld at very slow shutter speeds, pushed to 6400 ISO. So the light you get is murky and dramatic, which is also in keeping with the medieval-to-Renaissance atmosphere inside the cathedral anyway. We hope we captured, with appropriate dignity, each individual's relationship to the sacred.

Love, and with continual prayers for your good health,

--K & R

[Kaaren Kitchell & Richard Beban]

Felice!

Thank you for your praise. Since you are one of the photographers Richard admires and emulates, he is over the moon at your words.

Your recent Ireland gallery was amazing. Someday Paris? We'd love it.

Our friends who don't know your work should cut and paste this link: <http://www.felicewillatphotography.com>

Many hugs,

Kaaren (and Richard)

[Tara]

Still remember our lovely walk through Notre Dame together! Thank you for the beautiful pictures and history - here's to a happy and healthy 2013 for all!

[Betsy Hodges Storey]

welcome back- love your journal and photos --
in the 3rd picture - the procession in- do you notice the men in the white robes with the Jerusalem Cross on the side and there are 2 women in front of them with black robes ( I image there were others in the procession maybe behind all the men -- They are the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre of which we are a member of --
I love so many of the pictures but I think the rainbow is my favorite !!

[Wendy]

Dear Kaaren and Richard,

Just amazing. What an experience that must have been. Thanks so much for sharing.

Welcome back!

Best to you both,
Wendy

[Kaaren Kitchell & Richard Beban]

Tara! Come back. We'll do it again. And bring the new novel!

Hugs,

R & K

[Kaaren Kitchell & Richard Beban]

Thank you, Betsy.

Tell us more about the Knights and Ladies. We saw their robes, and were delighted to see "official" women in the celebration, but know nothing. Enlighten us, please.

Hugs,

R and K

[Kaaren Kitchell & Richard Beban]

Wendy!

Thank you, cuz. Private e-mail coming soon.

Hugs,

--R and K