Walking the Camino de Santiago
Walking through the ambulatory in the Abbey of Sainte-Foy in Conques, you find the shrine of the saint’s relics directly behind the high altar. The stained glass image behind the metal grill is a 21st-century image based on her bejeweled 11th-century reliquary, which itself is usually kept in the nearby museum. I’m including a bonus photo of the stained glass […]
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After Mass—which was beautiful—I set about exploring the abbey church. The architecture is just stunning, as I hope this look up over the sanctuary shows. While I’m not a fan of the modern ambo and main altar, they do fit in with the fabric of the place. The icon on the left is Sainte-Foy. The shrine of her relics is […]
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In addition to holding the relics of Sainte-Foy and therefore being a site of pilgrimage in itself, Conques is the first major religious site on the pilgrimage route from Le Puy-en-Velay to Santiago de Compostela. Of course there is a small shrine to Saint James the Apostle in his depiction as a pilgrim (Santiago Peregrino / Saint-Jacques Pèlerin). While this […]
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As I briefly explored the abbey church before Mass, I visited the chapel of Sainte-Foy. During my research into the route, I had come to love this little saint. She was a 2nd-century child martyr, and her relics have been held in this church (and its smaller predecessors) since the 9th century. The relics are not, however, in this chapel […]
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I stepped into the abbey church of Sainte-Foy, still wearing my pack. After the quick morning pace and that last steep descent, my legs felt like rubber. Nevertheless, when I stepped into the church, with monks preparing the church for Mass and people already starting to gather, all of the aches and fatigue faded into nothing. Here’s what I later […]
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This is the entrance of the abbey church of Sainte-Foy. I arrived about a half hour before the Sunday Mass. I was pretty tired from the fast pace I’d done most of the morning – so much so that I barely registered that some of the original polychrome was still visible on the tympanum. I did, however, notice the little […]
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The Way down into Conques was a knee-jarringly steep descent on asphalt road, a rude side path, stairs, and finally, dirt and stones. The stones were slick with last night’s rain, so there was no choice but to move slowly and carefully. Finally, I emerged from the woods onto the outskirts of the fairy-tale medieval village. It was still downhill, […]
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I reached this sign at about 10 AM. It might not be much to look at, and the translation might be a bit wonky, but when I spotted this roadside sign announcing that Sainte-Foy welcomed me to Conques. I was actually quite touched by it. At this point, I was about thirty minutes from the village proper of Conques. Date: […]
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On the way to Conques and just past the church in Saint-Marcel, I passed by this rather famous donkey. Many travel writers and pilgrims have written about this noisy beast. The writer of my guidebook, Dave Whitson, even described him as a “brilliant conversationalist“. He certainly startled me! Despite the backpack, I’m pretty sure I jumped into the air. The […]
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The village of Saint-Marcel consists of ten houses and a tiny, narrow church. This was originally a chapel of a much larger (presumably monastic) structure, which was already in ruins in the 16th century. After the Revolution, even this little remnant was allowed to decay to the point that it was essentially rebuilt in the late 19th / early 20th […]
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