Saint-François-Xavier Church

In the previous post about Avenue de Breteuil, I “promised” to revert with a post about the Saint-François-Xavier Church, so here it is.

Not so much to say about this church, which is fairly new, “only” about 150 years old. I would say that it’s another example of a type of churches built in Paris during this period with a “modern” mix of different classical models … but still of course beautiful.

(If you read the information given in the church, part of the interior decoration should be due to the same person who made the mosaics in the Sacré Coeur de Paris; this information is however false – he made it in the Sacré Coeur de Marseille.)

In a golden bronze-chasse you can find the body of  Saint-Madeleine-Sophie Barat (1779-1865) who created the female congregation of the Sacred Heart, today with some 3000 members, present on the five continents.

On the back side of the church is a statue of General Charles Mangin (1866-1925), one of the WWI heroes. This statue replaces a previous one, which was destroyed on direct order by Hitler in 1940. There is a photo with his 8 kids; one of them is the dad of a previous neighbour with whom, together with our respective dogs, I made regular evening walks during some ten years.