Montreal Blacksmith Mathieu Collette
We have family who are enroute to the Taize Christian community in France, but they've spent the past few days sight-seeing in Paris. They made sure to walk past Notre Dame Cathedral and made sure to send me a photo with what is one of the iconic places of Christian worship in the background. There were no sightings of Esmeralda or Quasimodo.
They weren't able to enter the cathedral because of the ongoing work of restoration after a devastating fire in 2019 which almost led to its collapse. The commitment to bringing Notre Dame back to its traditional glory is painstaking, and there is a Canadian connection.
The Forest of Notre Dame
I sent our travelling family members an article about a Montreal blacksmith who is forging medieval style axes to shape the oak beams in what is known as "the forest", the latticework of beams which support the vast roof. The axes had to be as close as possible to the originals used by the carpenters who first built the cathedral in the 12th and 13th centuries — so that the new wood beams would bear the same markings as the old. Mathieu Collette and his team are essentially the only toolsmiths in the world to make axes such as these so they were brought to France to create them. What an extraordinary opportunity for these craftspeople. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/notre-dame-de-paris-restoration-fire-axe-1.6900169
I continue to be fascinated by and conflicted about this restoration project which will cost well over a billion dollars. How can this be justified in a world of need? At the same time, this is a magnificent structure which has existed for centuries. I've been there several times, even attended a concert there at age 19, and its impossible to describe the sense of the numinous within those walls. We can hope that it will be rededicated to the glory of God and stand for centuries to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment