Gypsies keep a'travelin'

So, we've been visiting many a'glorious church and cathedral on our pilgrimage, but one that stands out is: Chartres.

According to legend, since 876 the Chartres Cathedral has housed a tunic that has been said to have belonged to the Virgin Mary, called the "Sancta Camisia." It had supposedly been given to the Cathedral by Charlemagne who received it as a gift during a crusade in Jerusalem.

Because of the tunic, Chartres has been a very important pilgrimage center and today peeps still come from all over to honor the relic. The town would have fairs and the main attraction at these fairs was the cloak of the Virgin, so the life of the town was dependent upon it. A little bit of strategic boosting of tourism, perhaps?

In 1194 there was a fire and most of the older church burned down. The people were bummed because they believed that their sacred relic, the Sancta Camisia, had perished too. But three days later it was found unharmed in the treasury along with the priests who had taken it there for safety when the fire broke out and locked themselves in behind the iron trapdoors. The visiting Cardinal Melior of Pisa, told the people that the survival of the relic was a sign from Mary herself and that another, even more magnificent, cathedral should be built in Chartres.

So this is why, the current cathedral of Chartres is considered one of the finest examples in all France of the "Gothic" style of architecture, with St. Peter's Basilica in Rome being the only Catholic church that is larger.

Whoop whoooop!