Basilique cathedrale de Saint-Denis

I recommend checking out the following links from the Saint-Denis website:

Saint-Denis, une ville au Moyen-Âge

Ce site est édité par le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication dans le cadre de sa collection "Grands sites archéologiques". Il a été réalisé sous la direction scientifique de l'unité d'archéologie de Saint-Denis.
http://www.saint-denis.culture.fr

These are images of St Denis from what appears to be its official website. The first image is very large, so it is cropped here. If you click on the image you will be able to see the whole image. Enjoy.

DIVA: Abbot Suger

"FRENCH GOTHIC Anonymous (active c. 1150 - c. 1500): Suger became Abbot of St. Denis in 1122, where under his administration the gothic style developed.

Tags: french, gothic, medieval, stained glass"

sententiae et clamores: bizarre abbot suger quote of the day

On why Suger needed to enlarge the church:

"For the narrowness of the place forced the women to run toward the altar upon the heads of the men as upon a pavement with much anguish and noisy confusion."

Saint-Denis: Abbot Suger

"Suger was probably born into a local family that, in the eleventh century, was very closely connected with the abbots of Saint-Denis. It is even possible that he was the illegitimate son of abbot Yves I who was officially accused of simony Simony The sin of buying or selling ecclesiastical offices or preferments and who was assassinated around 1094.

In 1091, at the age of ten, Suger was "given" to the monastery. He spent ten years at Saint-Denis-de-l'Estrée, the abbey school, where one of his classmates was the future king Louis VI. As provost of the Berneval priory in Normandy, he took part in the reorganization of monastic lands..."

More St Denis Video (From Google Video Searches)

BAsilique Saint Denis

St. Denis and Suger are discussed between 1:31 and 7:59.

St. Denis

St. Denis

"St. Denis is the patron saint of France. He was sent from Italy to Paris in the third century to be bishop, but the Gauls proved to be less than fond of his conversioning, and they beheaded him. Here's where it starts to get awesome. He picked up his head and walked two miles with it, giving sermons the whole way. The Gauls in charge of this operation clearly didn't have a solid zombie contingency plan..."

"He described the effect as being

'as though one is dwelling in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of heaven." and he called the light produced by the stained glass in there 'lux nova'- 'new light.' It's true. The light in there is absolutely unreal. Seriously, go on a sunny day. You'll feel as though you've gone stepping into some fairy realm.'"

Berenerchamion's Blue Note: The Gothic Period

"Abbot Suger, the man most responsible for the Gothic style as we know it, was born in 1081 A.D."

The Frog Blog of<br>Louis la Vache: <i>Basilique-Saint-Denis</i>: The Genesis of Gothic Architecture

"It was at basilique-Saint-Denis that flying buttresses were first tried."

"Here (and below) the windows of the choir at Saint-Denis"



"The west rose at Saint-Denis"


"Suger, De Administratione, XXIX"

Here a Grail, There a Grail: Grail Cups Part 2

Here a Grail, There a Grail: Grail Cups Part 2

"The Chalice bears the name for the Benedictine leader of Saint Denis; Abbot Suger (1122 -1151)... The Chalice in the above link is actually one of four Chalices that have survived to present day that Abbot Suger brought to Saint Denis. The other three are now in the Lourve. While Abbot Suger’s Chalice follows the same pattern of an ancient agate bowl in a medieval setting, it is doubtful it is the Grail. There really is no historical pedigree to back up any claims to the contrary. This Chalice’s home is the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC."