. saint-sulpice (Essonne) is a pilgrimage church located in a small village south of Paris. Large in relation to the community around it, the church was built to honor the relics of St. Sulpice, bishop of Bourges (d. ca. 647), who resuscitated a young child of the region. His feast is celebrated the first Sunday in September. When the chapel commemorating the saint became too small, a new sanctuary was constructed beginning ca. 1180. Parts of this structure, which survive as the “Chapelle des Miracles” off the north side of the present church, preserve an ancient well, perhaps of pre-Christian origins, the sinopia for wall paintings of the 14th century, and niches that may originally have contained relics.
A new church was begun at the site ca. 1245-50. Consisting of six bays and a polygonal apse, the new building was designed in the fashionable Rayonnant style that prevailed in Paris under Louis IX. The elevation has three stories, with passageways at the triforium level and on the exterior of the clerestory. Characterized by superimposed screens of wall penetrated by the wall passages, the tracery is cut in thin elements, thus giving the chevet the brittle grace and delicacy typical of Rayonnant style. Certain elements recall the Rayonnant parts of Meaux cathedral, as well as the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and Saint-Denis.
The church retains some of its medieval decoration. Most striking are the 13th-century windows in the chapel at the east end of the south aisle and a battered but handsome Gothic portal with St. Sulpice on the trumeau.
Caroline A. Bruzelius
[See also: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE]
Branner, Robert. Saint Louis and the Court Style in Gothic Architecture. London: Zwemmer, 1965, pp. 74-75.
Sjoberg, Yves. “Saint-Sulpice-de-Favieres.” Congres archeologique (Ile-de-France) 103(1944):246-64.
World History
