Vezelay - Sainte-Marie-Madeleine

The Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Vezelay is a breathtaking jewel of romanesque architecture. This is probably the church I have visited most often all over France.

As a young student at the university back in the early 70s I had done some research about the "Cluny Network". Vezelay played a role in that and I had been here a first time.

The relics of Sainte Marie-Magdalene had been venerated here and this was a major center of pilgrimage upto the day, when in 1279 dominican monks in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume claimed to have found the "real" sarcophagus of Marie Madeleine.

When the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela had developed into a pan-european phenomenon, Vezelay was a gathering point, as here the Via Lemovicensis started.

Bernard of Clairvaux had preached the Second Crusade to a large crowd at Vezelay in 1146. In 1189, the Frankish and English factions of the Third Crusade met here before departing for the Holy Land. The English armee was led by Richard I of England (aka "Richard the Lionheart", "Cœur de Lion"), the Frankish by Philip II of France (aka "Phillipe Auguste")

One of the many things, I could not understand as a young student was, how people covered these enormous distances. Many years later, after I had visited Vezelay a couple of times by car, I decided in 2005 to walk to Vezelay. I started (absolutely unexperienced!), in Trier (Treves) - and gave up in Vaucouleurs after about a week. I restarted with some more experince (and less luggage) some weeks later in Vaucouleurs and finally reached Vezelay August 2nd. 2005.

Some days after that, I found the office of the "Association des 'Amis et Pèlerins de Saint-Jacques de la Voie de Vézelay" - and another a long story started, that still keeps me walking...

www.vezelay-compostelle.eu/