Church of Saint-Medar

The medieval Catholic Church of Saint-Medar in the Paris quarter of Saint-Marcel bears the name of Saint Medar, a French bishop and saint who lived in the sixth century. The first chapel in his honor was built here in the ninth century. The current church, built in the late Gothic style, is the third built on this site. Its construction began in the fifteenth century, was repeatedly interrupted by religious wars and was finally completed only in the eighteenth century.

One curious legend is associated with the church of St. Medar. In the seventeenth century, the church became a refuge for Jansenists, followers of the heretical religious movement. One of the leaders of the Jansenists, deacon François Paris, was buried in the cemetery at the church. Very soon his grave became a place of pilgrimage, hopelessly ill people came here in the hope of a miraculous cure. Learning about this, Louis Fifteen in 1732 ordered to wall up the crypt of Francois Paris, and the cemetery to close. It is said that an inscription appeared on the gate of the church: “The King forbids God to perform miracles here.”