St Francis Xavier Church ( or is a parish Roman Catholic church in the 7th arrondissement of Paris dedicated to Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missions. Built in the late 19th century, It gave its name to the nearby Metro station Saint-François-Xavier. It contains the tomb of Madeleine Sophie Barat, a French saint of the Catholic Church and founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart, a worldwide religious institute of educators.It also known for its collection of Italian Baroque and Mannerist paintings, including a work by Tintoretto.
History
The church takes its name from Saint François Xavier (1506-1582), who was a professor in Paris when he met Ignace de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order in 1553. Inspired by Loyola, he was ordained as priest, and became a foreign missionary, travelling to Italy, India and Japan, and died in Canton, China in 1552. He was canonized in 1552. He is the patron saint of missionaries, sailors and tourists.
In 1637, as part of the Counter-Reformation movement, a seminary to train missionaries was organised on the rue du Bac in Paris by Bishop Dubal, with the support of Pope Urban VIII. The chapel of the seminary was built between 1683 and 1689, with decoration by Jacques Stella, Nicolas Poussin and Simon Vouet.
A séminaire destiné à former des missionnaires à l’apostolat en pays lointains (seminary for foreign missions) had been set up on rue du Bac in 1637 by Monseigneur Duval, with an accord from pope Urban VIII, during the Counter Reformation. The seminary's oratory or chapel was built between 1683 and 1689, with interior decoration by notable artists, including Jacques Stella, Nicolas Poussin and Simon Vouet, During the French Revolution, when the parish church, Saint-Sulpice was closed down, the chapel secretly served as the parish church. In 1801 the chapel was attached to the church of Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin, which became the church for the Faubourg Saint-Germain. In 1802 the new Foreign Missions" parish was officially separated from the parish of Saint Sulpice.
In 1842, the parish was renamed Saint Francis Xavier. However, the chapel soon became too cramped for the seminarians and parishioners to share and the parishioners began construction on a new church in 1861. It was part of a large project of Paris church construction launched by Emperor Louis Napoleon that accompanied the Emperor's other grand program, Haussmann's renovation of Paris.
The site chosen for the new church was selected to fit into an intersection of Haussmann's new boulevards. The Boulevard des Invalides and a new boulevard were designed to cross the and to meet the Seine level with the Pont du Carrousel. The new church was intended as the ending point of the new boulevard, Tthough the work was not entirely carried out as intended. The construction was begun under Abbé Jean-Louis Roquette, with architect Adrien Lusson in charge. It was halted for a time in 1861, then resumed by architect Joseph Uchard.
Before the above-ground work began, Uchard saw that the structure of the church would be hindered by the design of the new boulevards. The proposed site was an elongated hexagon, long enough for the church but very narrow at the west front, with no room for a proper portal and towers. Uchard asked Haussman's city planners to alter the new street plan to allow a wider west front. which they did. The work resumed and on the exterior of the church was completed on 15 July 1874. The building was finished by Easter 1875, though the interior decor was still not complete. It was consecrated on 23 May 1894, the eve of Corpus Christi, in a ceremony presided over by François-Marie-Benjamin Richard, archbishop of Paris.
The Exterior
The exterior was modelled after the Italian basilicas of the Renaissance, with the modern advantage of an iron frame hidden by the stone walls, allowing less massive walls, more interior space, and larger windows. The triangular fronton is decorated with sculpture illustrating "Saint Francois-Xavier baptising inhabitants of India and Japan."
Interior
The nave is flanked by two lower aisles lined by chapels, separated from the nave by massive pillars with Corinthian capitals. The decor of the nave is largely Neo-classical in design, with while the adjoining Chapel of the Virgin, at the east end, is decorated in Renaissance style. The iron structure of the church, hidden by the stone walls, makes possible the larger windows and abundance of light.