Our Lady Of Amiens
Country : France
Year : 1218
The shrine to Our Lady of Amiens is a cathedral. The church was erected by St. Firmin, the bishop of Amiens, who received the crown of martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian. A part of the head of St. John the Baptist is preserved here; it was brought hither by a traveler named Galo, on his return to Constantinople.
The old cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1218. It was rebuilt in Gothic style, complete in later centuries, and called the “Gothic Parthenon”. It is more spacious than Notre Dame in Paris and considerably larger than the cathedral in Reims. The choir is flanked by seven chapels, that in the center being the “Lady Chapel”. This shrine to Mary is so beautiful that one poet aptly wrote, “It is not possible to add anything to or to take anything from it”.
