PILGRIMAGE TO SAINTE-BAUME

by Ferzini Frans(2000) © L'Informatore del Marmista, Verona, Giorgio Zusi Editore, n. 465, pp. 100-109 [original title: Pellegrinaggio alla Sainte-Baume]

Corporation "logos" and the personal marks of stone cutters highlight the devotion of the "compagnons" for Sainte-Baume.

"Trees speak, birds whisper in the air; down there in the dry places the cornflowers bloom... and you... come on workers, embrace each others without delay! There is but one God; we are all brothers: here is the great Secret, here the great Duty!"

(F. Mistral "Calendal").

Reaching the high plateau of Plan D'Aups, near the town of Saint Maximin, a rocky bar extending from east to west for 12 km, there is a green forest with the fresh and balmy perfumes of Provence. In the middle of the north-facing rocky wall, the honed slate forms a cliff dropping sheer for 150 metres; in its heart, there is a dark cavern know in ancient time as "Baoumo", later becoming with the march of history the Sainte-Baume from which the mountain massif takes its name (the word Baume combines the meanings of both "grotto" and "balm").

To reach the Holy Grotto involves a climb of more than half an hour from Plain d'Aups through a dense forest of oak and ash trees, where cool air and humidity reign along a path named "Canapè" which soon leads to the steps in squared-off rock in front of the grotto home to a 1700s sanctuary which can no longer be visited following the collapse of rocky masses compromising stability and safety.

The path proceeds up to the peak of Pic du Saint Pilon where the Mistarl blows constantly over the rocks, smoothing and rounding them, while inundating the solitary small chapel of Saint-Pilon with the perfume of lavender and pine. The chepel, built with roughly squared blocks, essentially comprises a cube-like main body with a small portico and pronaos in front, separated by a gate with iron gratings. The ridge of the roof is an open circle which allows the wind, sunshine and rainwater to "play" in the bare interior, embellished soley by a small altar and a marble statue of Santa Maddalena. On the ground, a carpet of offerings and prayers, requests and supplications written on slips of paper whirl in the noisy wind seemingly taking them on high.

On the entrance and the surrounding rocks, the marks of corporations and the stone cutters highlight the devotion of the "compagnons" for this place - but also their disputes - as told in the Calendal of Mistral, where the disciples of Maitre Jacques and those of Pere Soubise fought each other with the tools of their trade, reddening the rocks and the slopes with fratricidal blood.

Yet it is right that I should recall the reasons for so much ardour and devotion for this place among the stone carvers. Ancient tradition suggests that Maitre Jacques, the legendary father of the Tailleurs de Pierre, after having worked with Hiram to build the Temple of King Solomon, sailed to Marseilles in the company of 13 Compagnons and 40 disciples, a journey which took 3 years - during he had to escape from the attacks of the disciples of Pere Soubise, his carpenter-colleague at the Temple of Solomon, who claimed traditional rights of primacy and thus preference over the work in the area. He withdrew as a hermit to Sainte-Baume, but while meditating near Saint-Pilon he was kissed by a traitor-disciple who, like Judas, gave an agreed sign to 5 assassins, who fell upon the "Maestro" and killed him with 5 dagger blows. Maitre Jacques died, forgiving his enemies, and was buried in the church of Saint Maximin.

Another "anniversary" encourages the Compagnons to visit Sainte-Baume at least once in their lifetimes: the last years of life of Mary Magdalen.

Expelled from Jerusalem in the wake of persecution following the spread of Christianity after the Resurrection, she landed on a chance ship at Sainte-Marie-de-la-Mer on the Rhone estuary in company with Mary of Bethania and Mary of Jesus, Lazzarus and sister Marta; after a period spreading the Gospel in Provence, she decided to withdraw in meditation to Sainte Baume and end her life in prayer. Feeling her strength drained, she decided to descend to the plateau and did in the arms of St. Maximin, Bishop of Aix, in the place know as Petit Sacre Pilon, where we can still see a columnar stone stele with the image of Mary Magdalen raised to Heaven by the angels.

She was also buried in the church of Saint Maximin where we can still see the ancient crypt dating from the IV century.

Together with Maitre Jacques, Mary Magdalen is the patron saint of the "Compagnon", symbolising the role of women in the "Compagnonnage" by tracing out the path to be followed: from repenting at the feet of Christ, washing His feet with her tears and perfuming them with pure balm, to the Calvary of the Cross and again at the burial place where she saw Christ Risen, receiving the blessing "Noli no tangere" and the palingenesian meaning to which to aspire. This is the path, the basic ideal of every Compagnon: pass from the visible to the invisible. Turn one's craft into a reason for living culminating in "ad imitatio Christi", a transmutation from carved stone to personal spiritual realisation.

Returning from Saint-Pilon, where Mary Magdalen "...neither ate nor drank..." according to IX century martyrology, we proceed along the "Path of Kings", so-called because it was the route taken by the sovereigns of France travelling from Nans les Pins as far as Saint-Pilon. It was flanked by 7 oratories built under the Archbishop of Arles, Jean Ferrier, in 1516, of which 4 are still visible, portraying the main events of the life of Mary Magdalen; they are engraved with the "signs" of the corporations and the Compagnone on the stone worked and squared with hand chisels, as well as simple fittings and rather refined cornices and rinceau.

The austere Gothic church of Saint Maximin, dedicated to Mary Magdalen, is the end of this Tour of the "Compagnon"; it was in this church with its incomplete facade that professional, human and spiritual training was finalised. It is home to the mortal remains of Maitre Jacques and Mary Magdalen, in a IV century crypt where the Gallo-Roman sarcophagus held the body of the saint until 710, when it was hideen to protect it against Saracen incursions; of these relics, we can still see the skull in a crystal reliquary in this same crypt.

This is the vital fulcrum of corporative holiness: the bare walls of the church, beginning with the crypt, bear a mass of engraved signs and marks, set squares and compasses, mazes, axes, horseshoes and full names freely intended to declare pride in being a "Compagnone", as well as battle names such a Fidelitè de Cologne, Raymond Le Poitevin, Bordelais l'Ami du Trait, etc. Names which turned their craft into a cathedral of celestial harmony.