Note 254 — Chapter VIII · Gothic in the Midi (continued 2)

Les Saintes-Maries is a desolate village of the Camargue, on the sea by the “Rhone of St. Gilles,” six miles to the west of the big Rhone. The crenelated fortress-church replaced, in the XII century, one destroyed by Saracens. Its eastern end rises in three stories; below, in the crypt, is the shrine of Sara, the dark handmaiden; above is the high altar; and crowning all is the shrine (placed in St. Michael’s care) in which Mary Jacobi and Mary Salome are honored. Their chapel opens on the church over the entrance to the Mass chapel. The sculpture resembles that of St. Trophime, at Arles; perhaps the much-eroded marble lions came from some monument of antiquity. Twice a year there are popular pilgrimages to Les Saintes-Maries, that of May being frequented by the gypsies. Monseigneur Duchesne, “La légende Sainte-Marie-Madeleine,” in Annales du Midi, 1903, vol. 5; Georges de Manteyer, “Les légendes saintes de Provence,” in Mélanges d’archéol. et d’hist.: École de Rome, 1897, vol. 17; Faillon, L’apostolat des Saintes-Maries en Provence. (This latter gives the Midi loyalists’ point of view.) (1848, 2 vols.)