Église Saint-Christophe et crypte des martyrs de Créteil

Créteil

In the heart of Vieux Créteil, hemmed in by the new town, the church of Saint-Christophe keeps beneath its choir a crypt dug in the Carolingian period to house the relics of two local martyrs, Agoard and Aglibert. The legend, written down in the 11th century by a monk of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif at Sens between 1046 and 1079, relates that two missionaries sent by the apostle Peter converted these two notables at Créteil, who had themselves baptised and overturned the idols of the pagan temple; a Roman prefect dispatched a judge who had them put to the sword with their companions, and Christians who had escaped the massacre gathered up the bodies. The legend sets the episode in the 1st century, but historians observe that the names Agoard and Aglibert have a Germanic ring and suggest rather a martyrdom of the 4th–5th centuries, if indeed it took place at all: the cult is attested only from the martyrology of the monk Usuard, around 865, which fixes their feast on 24 June. Excavations around the church have yielded Merovingian sarcophagi and possibly earlier burials, which at least confirm the antiquity of the burial site. The relics attracted pilgrimages from the 14th century and processions were held on 24 and 25 June; a confraternity founded in 1672 kept them going until the 19th century. The reliquary sarcophagus commissioned in 1692, destroyed at the Revolution, was remade to the same design in 1804. The church, given a three-storey bell tower around 1050 and then rebuilt in the Gothic style and completed in the 13th century, has been protected as a monument historique since 1928; the town's festivities, in late June, perpetuate without saying so the date of the old processions.

Ville de Créteil — L'église Saint-Christophe ↗

Getting there : In Vieux Créteil, near the rue Félix Maire and the place de l'Église; coordinates taken on the building, accurate to within a few dozen metres. Reached by metro line 8 (Créteil-Université or Créteil-Préfecture) then bus, or along the banks of the Marne. The crypt is not permanently open to all: enquire at the parish.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound