Chapelle Sainte Blaise des Simples

Chapelle St Blaise 

Inside this tiny chapel in a little town called Milly-la-Foret, south of Paris, is something very unexpected, especially when you are not expecting it! The walls have been decorated by Jean Cocteau (poet, writer and film maker)- in a style quite unlike what you would expect inside a chapel. But somehow it brings the divine down to a much simpler level than we are used to seeing in a place of worship. In a tribute to Saint Blaise, Cocteau has decorated the walls with drawings of the herbs well known in this region and with which Saint Blaise (a bishop and a doctor)used to heal the sick.

There are also religious depictions of Christ, of course, but I like the juxtaposition of a divine luminary and the world of plants - because after all we are told that nature is the embodiment of the Creator and even that every created thing has a counterpart in the spiritual world. Think of all the characteristics we ascribe to flowers and herbs: rosemary is remembrance, lavendar is devotion, lily is beauty, rose is love, and so on. There are virtues reflected everywhere in creation when we come to think of it.