Church of Marolles-Les-Buis, Saint-Lubin du Perche parish, Nogent le Rotrou
Saint Vincent
in the heart of the village, seen from the sky…
This church is dedicated…
To Saint Vincent: born in Spain, ordained deacon by Valère, bishop of Zaragoza, they were both the first victims of the persecution unleashed, in 304, against Christians by the emperor Diocletian. They were taken, in chains, to Valencia to appear before the governor of the province. Vincent eloquently declared that nothing, ever, would overcome their loyalty to Christ. He was then subjected to torture, and it was joyful to confess his faith that he breathed his last. Vincent became a very popular saint in the West. We do not know why he became the patron saint of winegrowers.
The Romanesque nave of the Marolles church…
Is the one which was given to the monks of Thiron around 1115. The proportions of this first church were practically doubled in the 15th century by the addition of a porch to the west, topped by a massive bell tower with a staircase turret exterior, and a choir narrower than the nave to the east.
A church is not a building like any other…
Each of the elements that constitute it has a particular meaning, a symbolic meaning. So it is with the porch or the front door. The door, generally monumental, even in a village church, leads from the street to the sanctuary, from the secular domain to the sacred domain. Open to a mystery, it is a place of passage between two states, and its value is dynamic: it invites you to cross, to progress towards… The church is generally oriented from west to east: west, the entrance, the east, the choir; the journey is therefore towards the side where the day dawns, and it is indeed the Day of the return of the victorious Christ, the Christ of glory, which the faithful await with faith and hope. And let us now reread the Gospel of John (10, 1-10) which tells us that Christ is the true door, the Door of passage to the Father. This is also what we are reminded of on the tympanum of cathedral doors where Christ is depicted who welcomes those who enter to offer them the opportunity to go with him to his Father...