St. Lawrence
rue de l'Eglise
59310 Aix-en-Pévèle
Church | X | Romanesque | Catholic Church
Map
Opening hours
17 April - 21 April
Mon 10.00 - 18.00
Tue
Wed
Thu 10.00 - 18.00
Fri 10.00 - 18.00
Sat 10.00 - 18.00
Sun 10.00 - 18.00
10 August - 16 August
Mon 10.00 - 18.00
Tue 10.00 - 18.00
Wed 10.00 - 18.00
Thu 10.00 - 18.00
Fri 10.00 - 18.00
Sat 10.00 - 18.00
Sun 10.00 - 18.00
24 October - 02 November
Mon 10.00 - 16.00
Tue 10.00 - 16.00
Wed 10.00 - 16.00
Thu 10.00 - 16.00
Fri 10.00 - 16.00
Sat 10.00 - 16.00
Sun 10.00 - 16.00
Religious offices
Description
It is undoubtedly one of the oldest churches in Pévèle. Built around the 10th century, as evidenced by its bell tower typical of the Carolingian period, a massive square bell tower made of sandstone and Roman tiles, which rises to three floors.
During its history, the church has been reversed: the old choir is now under the current porch. A hidden relic probably bears witness to this period under the staircase leading to the gallery: an ancient bas-relief bearing the arms of the Chastel de la Howarderie family, who were long-time owners of the seigneury of Aix.
Over the centuries, the church has undergone several renovations. In 1835, the side walls were rebuilt, the windows lengthened and the side walls raised. The building was completely restored by the municipality in 2017, under the direction of François Bisman, a heritage architect.
Despite all the changes it has undergone, the church of Aix-en-Pévèle still welcomes parishioners who knelt in the same nave nearly a thousand years ago.
Did you know that Saint Lauwence of Rome was one of the first deacons and treasurer/archivist of the Church? It was the 3rd century, when the practice of Christian worship was forbidden. Pope Sixtus II was arrested. The Prefect of Rome, who wanted to obtain the Church's possessions and archives, initially spared Saint Lawrence so that he could collect them in three days.
Instead, in order to respect the Pope's last wishes, he distributed the wealth to the poor and then presented it to the court. He declared that the faithful, the true treasures of the Church, ‘never diminish and always increase’. This sentence earned him a death sentence in 258, more precisely on a heated iron bed formed into a grill. The iconography makes a point of depicting him undergoing his martyrdom: either with a grill or with a palm of martyrdom. He is the patron saint of cooks, roasters, booksellers, archivists and the poor, and is also invoked, as in Aix, for burns and skin diseases. His feast day is 10 August.
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Photos
Remarkable elements
The mounted canvas of Our Lady of the Assumption
The left side altar features a mounted canvas (undated and unsigned) depicting the Assumption of the Virgin Mary rising from her tomb in a radiant and luminous cloud. Supported by two angels, she is surrounded by angel musicians. Around her tomb, the apostles pray as witnesses to the miracle. Saint Peter can be recognised in the foreground on the right.
This canvas is framed by false columns, remnants of the church's former décor.
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The altar dedicated to Saint Thérèse
The altar dedicated to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is a fine example of Art Deco religious furniture. The side panels of the altar are decorated with very linear floral motifs: roses for Saint Thérèse and lilies, attributed to the Virgin Mary for their purity. In the centre, the escutcheon decorated with a cross surrounded by three stars represents the coat of arms of the Carmelite Order.
Therese entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux at the age of 15 with the bishop's permission. There she followed an austere lifestyle, observing times of prayer and work in the service of the community. Her spiritual journey was marked by great suffering and total abandonment to God. She died of tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of 24. From the beginning of the 20th century, the Church received numerous testimonies of prayers answered through Thérèse. She was canonised in 1925 under the name of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
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The war memorial
Located inside the church, this monument was erected in recognition of the ‘children of the parish of Aix-lez-Orchies who died for France’. It depicts a soldier leaning against the stele and looking up at the sky. He is accompanied by an angel presenting him with a laurel wreath, a symbol of triumph, glory and victory.
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The statue of Saint Lawrence
Saint Lawrence is depicted with the grill, symbol of his martyrdom. The drape of the cloak retains traces of golden and purple polychromy, applied with a stencil and specific to the production of statues in the Saint Sulpician style. On his chest, the inscription ‘IHS’ corresponds to the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek, which were later interpreted as ‘Jesus Saviour of Men’ in Latin. The decoration is reminiscent of that of the other statues and the Stations of the Cross, suggesting that all the decorative furnishings were renewed at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century.
A relic is displayed every year on 10 August.
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The Virgin and Child, ceramic
This is a work by artist Boleslaw Danikowski (1928–1979), who is buried in the local cemetery. Made of beige, almost white glazed ceramic, it consists of a halo resembling a radiant sun, in front of which the faces of Christ and his mother are depicted in profile. This naive representation is very gentle and conveys the infinite tenderness between the two figures, who seem to be embracing and sharing the same heart.
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The pulpit
Made of varnished wood from the 19th century, the pulpit was moved to the entrance of the choir (and stripped of its sounding board) before the Second Vatican Council. Its decoration is rather sombre, despite some plant motifs on the frieze.
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The stained glass windows in the choir
The same decoration, consisting of columns, decorative remains from the old church, surrounds two scenes. The first depicts the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto at Lourdes. Between February and July 1858, this miracle occurred 18 times, making Lourdes one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in the world. Opposite, the scene depicts the episode of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque* (1647-1690) in Paray-le-Monial in the 17th century.
These two stained glass windows are signed ‘Haussaire Lille’ in reference to Ernest Haussaire, a stained glass artist in the early 20th century. His work combines the Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau styles, incorporating visual references into the scenes: colours, symbols and decoration.
* Marguerite entered the Monastery of the Visitation in Paray-le-Monial (Saône-et-Loire) in 1671 after a youth marked by a long illness and the death of her father. Having become Sister Marguerite-Marie, it was here that she received Christ's revelations about his Sacred Heart, a symbol of his love and mercy for mankind. In religious iconography, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is represented by the apparition of Christ revealing his Heart to Saint Marguerite-Marie. She was canonised in 1920.
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