Ruth Paget: Visiting the Cathedral at Cologne, Germany with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Monday, April 22, 2013

Visiting the Cathedral at Cologne, Germany with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When Emperor Frederic Barbarossa had relics of the three magi who visited the infant Jesus transferred from Milan, Italy to Cologne, Germany in 1164, he created the need for a pilgrimage cathedral on an earlier religious site dating from the fourth century according to Cologne Cathedral written by Arnold Wolff.

The Cathedral at Cologne soars above your head as you enter to the height of 142 feet (43.35 meters) in the nave; the cathedral dwarfs the visitor. Wide lateral aisles allow for great numbers of pilgrims to circulate around the main altar holding the golden shrine of the three magi, which resembles a basilica with a towering central nave with lower sides. However, the shrine is three separate shrines set together in this fashion. The resemblance to a basilica is incidental.

The presence of the relics of the three magi caused this immense cathedral to be built, but the homilies delivered by its great scholar priests have made it a center of scholarship and piety as well. The Dominican priest Albert Magnus (1206 – 1280) taught at Cologne as did Meister Eckhart (1260 – 1328) and the Scottish Franciscan Duns Scotus (1266 -1308).

Albert Magnus was famous for his defense of the mendicant orders and a famous professor of theology, philosophy, and natural science. His most famous student was Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274).

Meister Eckhart is most famous as a mystic, who had a head for business. His homilies are written in simple and elegant German according to The New Advent Encyclopedia.

John Duns Scotus was an early supporter of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Lofty theological debate and philosophical discussion still take place in Cologne as you witness groups of prelates bustling around the cathedral deep in discussion. However, there is great charm at the cathedral in Cologne as well. The day my husband Laurent and I visited a group of schoolchildren were touring with their teachers. They stopped by the shrine of the three magi. When their teachers explained what it was, they lifted their eyes upward with their mouths open.

Cologne Cathedral inspires awe among the faithful of many generations.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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