EGLISE ST VORLES - CHATILLON-SUR-SEINE
Saint Bernard and the Milk Miracle
The village of Chatillon-Sur-Seine near the origin of the the Seine River in north-western Burgundy where it borders Champagne was heavily bombed in in 1940, the early years of WWII, by the British and still bears the scars. On a hill overlooking town can
be found the Eglise Saint Vorles, more a provincial church rather than a cathedral, but quite significant on the history of European Christianity. Surrounded by the ruins of the old
city
fortress, are the remains of the Medieval religious school where the famed cleric, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux received his education from the priests
of St. Vorles in the early days of the 12th Century.
St. Bernard was the son of Burgundy
nobles who after joining the church, following the Cistercian tradition, became a champion of the austere life. He forswear wealth and the comforts of the physical world, and is most closely associated with the founding of Knights
Templar (see Hugues
de Payns Museum). St Bernard is regarded as the author of
the Templar's rules and was one of the
principal forces instigating the Second Crusade. St. Bernard is
also curiously connected to the Black Madonna or Vierge Noire. Bernard
of Clairvaux revered the Virgin
Mary and claimed as a miracle that while suffering from an infection,
a statue of the virgin bled milk from her
breast and healed him, known as (the Lactation Miracle. The details
of the miracle
vary between whether the milk hit his eye, his lips or poured over his
body. A Black Virgin can be found inside the church in a niche, but
is a replacement
of the original which was burned in the 1700's.
Because of his
connection
with the Templars, St. Bernard is sometimes proposed in connection
with
the mythic "Priory of Scion" made familiar from the "Da
Vinci Code". He also plays a role in Dante's "Human
Comedy".
Another Black Virgin in the area can be found at the Notre Dame
de Beune
(See Old
Virgins of Beune). St. Bernard is associated with the city of Troyes and was the founder of the Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay, the oldest and best
preserved monastery
in France a few kilometers away (see Abbey Fontenay). Also the ruins of the Abbey Clairvaux can be found nearby in
Bar-sur-Aube.
The graveyard cemetery behind the St. Vorles church which dates
to the
middle ages, is indelibly impressive with its Gothic monuments and gravestones. The cemetery, though, shows its wear over the ages, just a little spooky, as some of the tombs seem like the buried awoke one night and crawled out and decapitated angels seem remnant of some grand battle of the ages with ancient demons. © Bargain
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See Also:DIJON - BURGUNDY WINE, MUSTARD N' GARGOYLES
CASTLE OF THE DUKES OF LORRAINE
