Monument as Ex-Voto, Monument as Historiosophy: The Basilica of Sacre-Coeur

Abstract

A sense of imminent and momentous change animated the crowd of pilgrims gathered at Chartres in May of 1873. 1873 pilgrimage, perhaps inevitably politicized because it occurred three days after the fall of the government of Adolphe Thiers, was marked by the presence of over one hundred and forty deputies from the National Assembly and many of the leading bishops of France. A yearning for spiritual renewal, prompted by shattering national defeat, had followed the Franco-Prussian War, and at this delicate political moment, such a distinguished assemblage seemed to demonstrate that the new spirituality spilled over the boundary separating private sentiments from public life. featured speaker was Bishop Pie of Poitiers, easily one of France's most imposing bishops, both in physical and intellectual terms. Pie for months had been telling congregations of the advent of an era marked by the christianization of public institutions. At each opportunity he enunciated the message with new fervor: The hour of the Church has come. . . . hour approaches when Jesus Christ will return not only to the hearts and minds of men, but also to the institutions, the social life, and the public life of peoples. ' In the con-