St. Casimir, son of King Casimir IV of Poland, led an angelic life and excelled in love for the poor and great devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He practised the most heroic virtues amid the dangers of his father's court. He is patron of Poland and Lithuania. He died in 1483.
Tuesday morning we awoke before 3:00 and took off from Vienna around 6:40. We landed in Paris around 8:40. After finding our Hotel we rushed right off to see the Sacre-Coeur Basilica (in retrospect a nap would have been a good idea). We should have learned - our first time in Rome Lisa fell asleep in St. Peter's Basilica. But I digress...
Pictures were not allowed inside the Basilica, out of respect for the exposed Blessed Sacrament. We did take some pictures of the outside, but it was a bit rainy, and the pictures from a few days later turned out better. If you can't wait, check out the official website.
Next, we rushed off to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame (again, the nap would have been the intelligent thing to do). And by "rushed off," of course, I mean "took the metro," which was almost always a harrowing experience. Let's just say, non-stroller friendly. But, Notre-Dame was actually even more impressive than either of us expected. Which brings us to our first picture: here we are.
After a long stroll through the heart of Paris we returned to the Ile de Cite to see La Sainte Chapelle - the private chapel built by King St. Louis IX in the 13th century to house relics of the Passion, chief amongst which was the Crown of Thorns. The two most beautiful chapels in the world are certainly this and the Sistine - the Sistine is a masterpiece of paint, La Sainte Chapelle of stained glass. Pictures fail to capture the beauty of either one.
We returned to the Hotel for a respite, but it was almost time to head for Mass already. It took a bit of looking to find the Parish of Saint-Eugene where the Traditional Latin Mass is offered daily, but we made it. We have no pictures of this fine church though, as we were there only in the evenings for Mass - and hence very little light inside.
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