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Showing posts with label Chartres. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chartres. Show all posts

Friday, September 14, 2018

Touring Chartres Cathedral: Walking the Labyrinth with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Touring Chartres Cathedral:  Walking the Labyrinth in Chartres, France with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
  

On a prior visit to Chartres Cathedral, I purchased a French-language academic journal that discussed the uses for the labyrinth in this spot.

The journal entitled simply NĂ´tre Dame de Chartres was devoted to the large labyrinth at Chartres that is placed in the floor of the nave area of the Cathedral.

In the past, worshipers stood during mass and could easily see the labyrinth.  Today, chairs cover the floor most of the time, so scholars have to look at drawings to know what the labyrinth at Chartres looks like.

Several cathedrals had labyrinths in the Middle Ages that have not made it to the modern period due to neglect and/or purposeful destruction.

The academic journal I read said that in the rare cases where scholars know the names of the master masons (engineer-architects), it is because their names were inscribed in the labyrinths.

The article went on to describe how the labyrinth almost equaled the Western Rose Window in diameter.

Master masons may have used the labyrinth as a blueprint and measuring device to build other parts of the Cathedral.  The author of the article said that even rope could be used to measure off lengths for use elsewhere in the church.

The center of the labyrinth at the Cathedral at Chartres held a copper disc that showed the combat of Theseus and the Minotaur from ancient Greek mythology. 

Theseus was able to kill the Minotaur and escape the labyrinth with the help of a woman in much the same way that Christ helped save men in difficulty in the Christian world.  (Life is constant struggle, so we all need help.)

The Theseus story from Greek mythology is called pagan in most church booklets you read in France.  However, people still know and refer to mythology today.  This was even truer in the Middle Ages when Christianity was a relatively young religion with rival religions and heretical sects in its own ranks.

Peasants and nobility alike could understand from the Theseus story the metaphor of Christ being like Ariadne, who gave Theseus the thread to escape the labyrinth once he had killed the Minotaur in Knossos, Crete.

Another way in which the labyrinth was used was to replicate the Road to Jerusalem as a pilgrimage.  Parishoners, who could afford, it were encouraged to go on pilgrimages in much the way that Muslims are encouraged to go on the hajj to Mecca today, if they have paid all their debts and can afford it.

Some labyrinths appear on church walls as well.  In that location, they remind me of the Stations of the Cross that surround pews in Catholic Churches.  Each Sabbath, the Catholic faithful can replicate Christ’s walk to Calvary, if they choose to do so.

People who would like to know more about the labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral can consult the Loyola University of Chicago website devoted to Medieval Studies with pages set aside just for the Labyrinth of Chartres.


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

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