The Vézelay Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 1979. In my guidebook there was no mention of the daily singing. It was so exquisitely beautiful I wanted to lie down on the floor and soak myself in the architecture and sound. This is a holy place that had a powerful effect on me, despite the bus loads of school children whose fidgeting and shuffling was an aural distraction. The Brothers and Sisters of Jerusalem sang non-stop for about twenty minutes followed by scripture reading and then more glorious polyphonic singing. Halfway through the service, two birds began flying high above the heads of the choir, but within the domed ceiling. Their swooping and chasing added grace notes to the glorious music.

This basilica lacks the stained glass windows we have come to expect and yet I am struck by how ‘light’ it feels, even with its rock walls. When I read the guidebook I am surprised to find the church was deliberately planned so that worshippers would feel they were passing from darkness into light as they went from the narthex to the nave. Even the carvings on the pillars and columns were positioned so that the Old Testament characters would more often be in the shadow than those from the New Testament. The carving of Saint Eustace’s conversion shows him passing from the darker side of the capital to the lighter side. They have services at Vézelay Tues – Friday at 7am, 12:30 and 6pm. On Saturday at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. and on Sunday at 8 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. They offer some workshops here during the summer on topics such as Lectio Divino, but I don’t think they offer any in English.

History

The basilica was founded in the ninth century. Pilgrimages to the basilica to venerate the relics of St. Mary Magdalene begin in the early 11th century and soon it became a starting place for pilgrimages as well. St. Bernard preached the Second Crusade there in 1146. Richard the Lionhearted went there before the Third Crusade to Jerusalem. The Basilica was damaged by the Huguenots in 1569 and subsequently lay in ruin for three centuries. It was rebuilt between 1840 and 1861.