Chartres, France

On May 21, 2010, I began my pilgrimage in Chartres, France, through an week-long intensive workshop titled “Living an Authentic Life: Walking the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice” with renowned author and labyrinth facilitator, Dr. Lauren Artress.

Numerous cathedrals in Europe have prayer labyrinths embedded into their floors. The most famous of these remaining labyrinths is at the Cathedral of Chartres (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres) about 50 miles from Paris, France. Chartres Cathedral is located in the medieval town of Chartres. The labyrinth at Chartres was built around 1200 and is also the only one of the larger medieval labyrinths still existing. Sometimes this eleven-circuit labyrinth would serve as a substitute for an actual pilgrimage to Jerusalem and as a result came to be called the “Chemin de Jerusalem” or Road of Jerusalem. The Chartres labyrinth is an eleven-circuit labyrinth, which symbolizes Christ’s cross with its four quadrants, and grace being symbolized by the never-ending path to the center and back, allowing the pilgrim to walk the path at his own pace, stop for prayer and meditation as needed.

Not only is Chartres Cathedral one of the greatest achievements in the history of architecture, it is almost perfectly preserved in its original design and details. Chartres’ extensive cycle of portal sculpture remains fully intact and its glowing stained-glass windows are all originals. Chartres is thus the only cathedral that conveys an almost perfect image of how it looked when it was built. According to tradition, Chartres Cathedral has housed the tunic of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the (Sancta Camisia) since 876. The relic was said to have been given to the cathedral by Charlemagne, who received it as a gift during a trip to Jerusalem. Because of this relic, Chartres has been a very important pilgrimage center and people still come from the world over to honor it.

During my week stay in Chartres, there is a very interesting light show every evening during this summer in which the statues on the front of the cathedral are lighted very precisely, so that they are polychrome, as they were originally, with skin tones and eye color and clothes of many colors.