Situated in the Rue du Temple, the church dedicated to the great Hungarian princess formerly faced the entrance to the grim fortress of the Templars, where the poor little Dauphin sighed out his infant life. The church was built for the nuns of the third order of S. Francis, of which S. Elizabeth was a member; and the first stone was laid in 1628 by a very different sort of Queen, Marie de' Medici. The exterior, with its Doric pilastered doorway, and the interior, with its poor glass and indifferent sculptures, are alike utterly uninteresting; but the white marble font, bearing the date of 1654, and the woodwork which ornaments the aisle of the sanctuary, are worth a visit. The latter consists of a series of little panels representing scenes from the Old and New Testament in bas-relief, of the end of the 16th century, and are said to have been originally in a church at Arras. There is nothing in the building worthy of its patron, that most perfect of saints, whether we think of her as woman, as queen, or as mother. "AVE GEMMA SPECIOSA! MULIERUM SYDUS, ROSA! EX REGALI STIRPE NATA, MUNDO LICET VIRO DATA NUNC IN COELIS CORONATA; CHRISTO TAMEN DESPONSATA. UTRIUSQUE SPONSALIA, SIMUL SERVANS ILLIBATA; SARAM SEQUENS FIDE PIA, ET REBECCAM PRUDENTIA, O DILECTA! O BEATA! NOSTRA ESTO ADVOCATA, ELIZABETH EGREGIA! |