Paray-le-Monial, basilique du Sacré-Cœur et chapelle des Apparitions

Paray-le-Monial

Paray-le-Monial offers a striking shortcut: the purest of Cluniac Romanesque landscapes, which in the 17th century became the stage for one of the great mystical adventures of modern France. The basilica, raised in the 11th and 12th centuries under the impulse of Cluny, is a miraculously preserved "scale model" of the great abbey church that has vanished: a Latin cross 63.5 metres long, three-storey elevation, octagonal bell tower, stepped east end reflected in the Bourbince. But the pilgrims who flock here — more than 200,000 every year — come first of all for a young nun. In 1671, Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, born at Vérosvres in 1647, entered the Visitation monastery, a few steps from the priory church. Between 1673 and 1675, she testified to having received three "great apparitions" of Christ showing her his heart "which has so loved men" and asking for a feast in its honour. The Jesuit Claude La Colombière, her confessor, supported her and authenticated her experience. From this small provincial chapel would grow the universal devotion to the Sacred Heart — all the way to the basilica of Montmartre in Paris. The pilgrimage, organised in 1875 for the bicentenary of the apparitions, earned the church its title of basilica; Marguerite-Marie was canonised in 1920. Today one moves between the Romanesque basilica, the Chapel of the Apparitions where the saint lies, and the Byzantine chapel (1930) housing the relics of La Colombière: three sanctuaries for a single story, that of a heart shown to a nun in the silence of the Charolais.

Getting there : Centre of Paray-le-Monial, avenue Jean-Paul II / bank of the Bourbince. Basilica freely open all year round; the Chapel of the Apparitions (Visitation monastery) 300 m away, open for prayer; sessions and pilgrimages mainly in summer. Coordinates given for the basilica.

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

Ambient sound