Sainte Chapelle: Glorious Fruit of the Middle Ages 

Insert Redletter Media Meme Here - It’s not a church, dum dum!

Mr. Fragelli contradicted himself. He first states how the king and other wealthy/titled Christians attended Mass in the upper, much more inspiring and light filled part of the Cathedral, while the poor and Christians who did much physical labor had to attend Mass beneath the wealthy, with less light. This goes directly against the Teachings of our Holy Lord Jesus.

@@truthaboveagenda Um, does it look like they were suffering in that "lower chapel?" Have you ever been to many of the Renaissance churches in Italy? Some of those practically have no light! Or look at some of the old medieval chapels. San Chapelle is more an exception than the norm in relation to the amount of light. The lower chapel looks gorgeous. Those people were not exactly slumming. They had it very good! I would be careful putting modern thinking and standards on people from another time. You seem to imagine that they were suffering because those "upstairs" seemed to have more stained glass than them, but are ignoring what they did have. To be honest, the comparison between the two is much, much, much more fair and generous than what you might see in our modern world. In our modern world, "peasants" eat at McDonalds and live in slums and never even get to experience such nice things as that lower chapel! I don't know....if I had a rich boss who gave me such a nice chapel to pray in, it might seem rather spoiled of me to complain that I do not have as much stained glass as him....

M. E. Your statement is warped, i never wrote that anyone was suffering. This unequal setup goes against Holy Scripture, that commands us NOT to give preferential treatment to the wealthy. . Christ Is King

@@therealist3495 I'd like to agree with that, but I see it more often used to say "Medieval era = bad" the same way these people call the 1950s the "The Great Darkness" where I live.

Mr. Fragelli contradicted himself. He first states how the king and other wealthy/titled Christians attended Mass in the upper, much more inspiring and light filled part of the Cathedral, while the poor and Christians who did much physical labor had to attend Mass beneath the wealthy, with less light. This goes directly against the Teachings of our Holy Lord Jesus.

@@darktangent10 So, you obviously want to tell us, that this Church of the Savior on Blood was built in *communist* times?? Do you even know when this cathedral was built and when happened communist revolution in Russia?

True. Mr. Fragelli contradicted himself. He first states how the king and other wealthy/titled Christians attended Mass in the upper, much more inspiring and light filled part of the Cathedral, while the poor and Christians who did much physical labor had to attend Mass beneath the wealthy, with less light. This goes directly against the Teachings of our Holy Lord Jesus.

@@truthaboveagenda In trying to interpret the "tone" of your text, I ask the following...Should Saint Louis; King of France, have attended Mass in the lower chapel and the employees in the higher? Did this Saint sin by; as you say, going..."directly against the Teachings of our Holy Lord Jesus." Besides, it is not the largest chapel, so to fit everyone of the court inside the upper part was physically impossible. It is said that God does not command what is impossible. If we are unable to discern how to treat an earthly king with respect, how can we be prepared to treat our Heavenly King with due respect? One scenario prepares us for the higher. Saint Louis wore royal robes but was known for his great austerities so that he would not be attached to riches in a sinful way but would use them in a virtuous way and according to his office in which, Divine Providence was pleased to place him. This is one of the marks of a saint. He is treated as a king because he was king and would not have such a position... "unless it were given you from above." [John 19:11] God was pleased to see him become king and to be given all that such a great mission required. This of course included being expected to kneel at the best place in the Chapel to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Imagine all of the eyes of France are upon you always examining everything you did. It is a cross and a vocation to be king and not a vacation or some "winning the lottery." Humility is to accept the truth of who we are and what we are called to be. If Saint Louis pretended to be a farmer or a simple shoemaker rather than carry the vocation of being a king, it would be false humility and he would never have become a saint. Besides, Notre Dame Cathedral is not far from the Saint Chapelle and all could enter freely. Medieval society was not perfect but did not undermine itself with the subversive modern ideologies of Marxism and class struggle. Knowing the king was attending in the above chapel was a joy for them. To admire others for their qualities glorifies God. For they reflect God more than ourselves in this or that point. They are greater than me in this or that. How great! It is evident that God made the universe hierarchical and full of proportional inequality, and that glorifies Him better! We all have a place in the universe but would sin to want to undermine one of greater perfection than ourselves+. Be certain that Our Lord redeemed us at the greatest price but, Our Lord will not give up his throne or glory for a lesser one in Heaven, nor will He ask His Mother to give up Hers which is closest to His. Perhaps it was not the intent of the your comment but it seemed to be tainted with a shadow coming from the "gospel" according to Marx.

6 years later.. I took a screenshot and put into Google lens and found it in seconds. Freaking technology! The painting is Charlemagne at Paderborn.

@@BeardedBaldGuy87 wow thank you! Didn't expect a repply for an old comment like that and I'm here and just read it.

What a coincidence ! My 26 th great grandfather was Robespierre !

@Joseph a‘ Christian Um, does it look like they were suffering in that "lower chapel?" Have you ever been to many of the Renaissance churches in Italy? Some of those practically have no light! Or look at some of the old medieval chapels. San Chapelle is more an exception than the norm in relation to the amount of light. The lower chapel looks gorgeous. Those people were not exactly slumming. They had it very good! I would be careful putting modern thinking and standards on people from another time. You seem to imagine that they were suffering because those "upstairs" seemed to have more stained glass than them, but are ignoring what they did have. To be honest, the comparison between the two is much, much, much more fair and generous than what you might see in our modern world. In our modern world, "peasants" eat at McDonalds and live in slums and never even get to experience such nice things as that lower chapel! I don't know....if I had a rich boss who gave me such a nice chapel to pray in, it might seem rather spoiled of me to complain that I do not have as much stained glass as him....

M. E. Your statement is warped, i never wrote that anyone was suffering. This unequal setup goes against Holy Scripture, that commands us NOT to give preferential treatment to the wealthy. . Christ Is King

Joseph a‘ Christian - That isn’t the meaning of ‘contradiction’ you baloon!!

The upper part of the Chapelle was only for the King, his family and private suite. The nobility and palace staff was kept in the lower part.

The example was more precisely of communism in Russia. We also suffer from cultural marxism in the USA and must oppose it.

The St. Chapelle was commissioned by Louis IX, also called St. Louis, to house his collection of Passion relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns, bought at a high price to Venetian merchants of Constantinople - the most important relics in medieval Christendom. I wonder what this St Chapelle has got to do with paleontology or with Spain.

Yes they were defeated in 1492 . Unfortunately Merkel and other EU politicians reversed that and decided to invite ( ! ) them in . European Culture is doomed .And will vanish in next 50 years.

Joe Franks rude

+darktangent10 At roughly the time that Sainte Chapelle Cathedral was built in France, Mongols had looted Russia so thoroughly that even capitals were unable to afford to build new stone churches. His criticism of "communism" and Russia's inability to produce anything "beautiful" only shows his ignorance and hubris. Not to mention, Kievan Rus (a federation of east slavic tribes until it fell to the Mongols in the 1240s) and Vladimir Suzdal (the principality that succeeded Kievan Rus) were Orthodox Christian. In his ignorance, he is criticizing the products of his own religion. This person has no right to say things like this about Russia (which didn't even exist as a unified country in the time periods he is speaking of) when he is so ignorant.

+darktangent10 La Sainte Chapelle is no a Cathedral but a big reliquary... A cathedral or a cocathedral is the place where you find a cathedra (bishop's seat of teaching - teaching 'ex-cathedra'' = teaching from the cathedra). Habitually you find one per diocese. Rome's cathedral is not St Peter but St-Jean du Latran. Don't take my word, go take a look.

Jaimelès Clémentine Thanks for the clarification, but it doesn't have anything to do with the point I was making.

+darktangent10 U are welcome. I know it has not much to do with your point but it will give it a more accurate aspect :p

As an architecture student I can tell you that there are many discussions among various architects about a recent rise of the modern architecture (which developed around 100 years ago) created some of the ugliest buildings in history of the world. Communism was one of those foul social structures which developed this unappealing form of buildings. See, throughout history, cultures have looked towards nature for a source of inspiration which helped them develop the amazing architectural marvels we have from our ancestors. Modernism does nothing of that sort. The way they develop buildings is by stripping down already created architecture down to it's basic form and work with that. Any type of ornamentation or detail that in the past was used to make the buildings more beautiful is rejected and only basic shapes are in action when design of the structure takes place. There's even no word of making something beautiful, the main words that dominate mainstream architectural discussions are functionalism and convenience (the latter being a code word for laziness).