City of the Holy Blood

After spending the day in Brussels, I took a train to the city of Bruges in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium.  Bruges is a nice place to stay--quiet and peaceful with swans swimming in the black water of the canals, the Benedictine nuns singing Vespers in their chapel by the Minnewater, and the spires of the Cathedral of the Holy Savior and the Church of Our Deary Lady marking the skyline in just the same way they did hundreds of years ago in the paintings of Bruges' famous artists.

The hostel I stayed in was not as picturesque as the city outside.  This was my third time staying there.  You can get a private room for under 30 euros and breakfast is included.  "But is it really worth it," I asked myself this time around, "when you're afraid to take your shoes off because the floor hasn't been cleaned in such a long time?"  The last time I was there they had soap in the rooms.  Not so this time.  When I asked about it, they gave me some shampoo that someone had left behind.  The label was in another language.  I used it to wash my hands, and a little later I put in my contacts.  My eyes immediately started watering and burning.  I had to take them out and put them in again at least three times before I could stand the pain, and even then if I closed my eyes for too long, it started again.  It had to have been caused by the shampoo.  What on earth could have been in it?!  Maybe it was an extra powerful formula to kill lice.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the foreign label said: "Avoid contact with eyes.  If product gets in eyes, flush with water for four hours.  Contact a physician to avoid risk of blindness."  I think next time I'm in Bruges I'll cough up a little more money--if only to have soap in the room!

Once I was out of the hostel, had met my friend Karen at the train station, and had gotten back on course after leading us in the wrong direction, the beauty of Bruges consoled my woes!  This is the Burg, the political center of Bruges with its town hall flying the Belgian flag.

Also on the Burg Square is the Basilica of the Holy Blood.  During the Crusades, Bruges acquired a precious relic from the Holy Land--a crystal vial set in gold containing dark brown particles believed to be the blood of Christ.  The prestigious Confraternity of the Holy Blood was formed to supervise devotion to the relic.  The confraternity still exists, and at certain times during the day, confraternity members display the relic for the public to venerate.  Every year on the Feast of the Ascension there is a huge procession in Bruges in which clergy and citizens carry the relic through the streets, many of the people wearing medieval costumes.

This is a view from the Grote Markt, the center of the city where open air markets are held.  You can see the tower from the Cathedral of the Holy Savior above the Flemish brick buildings.

A huge bell tower dominates the Grote Markt and plays carillon music at certain times during the day.  We climbed hundreds of stairs on a tightly winding spiral staircase to get to the top.  You had to stand against the wall when people from above had to pass by on their way down.  We started wondering how many people had stumbled a little, keeled into the wall, been knocked senseless, and then tumbled down eighty or ninety steps to end up in a coma at the bottom.

We saw the elaborate wheels, pulleys, and chains that make the bells ring.

And the view from the top was spectacular.  You can see the cathedral here amidst a sea of red roofs, with the countryside in the distance.

This is the Church of Our Dear Lady with some scaffolding for renovation purposes.

We made it back to solid ground, having successfully avoided concussions, comas, and death, and continued on to the thirteenth-century Church of Our Dear Lady.  The screen in the picture, crowned by an image of the Madonna and Child, once separated the clergy from the rest of the congregation.  For hundreds of years, the priests celebrated mass behind the screen and in the back of the church, making it a little difficult for most people to see.  Since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1950s and 60s, Catholic altars are now placed in a more central location.

In a portion of the nave side aisle, there are many votive plaques, giving thanks for miracles attributed to the Madonna's intercession.

You have to pay to go beyond the screen to see the old high altar and the church's collection of paintings and treasure.  This is the tomb of Mary of Burgundy, an important political figure in Renaissance Flanders although she died very young.  Positioned next to the high altar, her bronze hands are frozen in prayer, listening in silence to the thousands of masses offered right in front of her.

The most precious object in the church, however, is Michelangelo's marble sculpture of the Madonna and Child.  It is one of the only major works by the artist outside of Italy.  Art historians talk about the way that the Christ Child steps gingerly down from his mother's lap, as if descending from the safety and comfort of  Heaven into the cruel world where he will teach, suffer, and die for the sins of the world.  The Virgin's grave face hints that she senses the coming sacrifice of her tiny son.  The child even holds his mother's hand, still drawing support from her as her prepares to enter the world.

Always time for a treat in Belgium!  Here are more chocolates.

I learned that the man who invented the praline was a pharmacist, who decided to dip pills in chocolate to make them more palatable for children.  Whether or not that's true, pralines are a marvelous invention.

And there's always room for a Belgian waffle with chocolate and powdered sugar!

We finished up the day by going to the Begijnhof, a garden courtyard surrounded by houses where Bruges' beguines used to live.  Beguines were women who lived essentially like nuns but without taking vows.  Today the Begijnhof is a true convent for  Benedictine nuns.  This is a picture of the Minnewater, near the convent.  It is a quiet and very beautiful place.  I stayed in  Bruges for about a week I was doing research on my Master's thesis a few years ago, and I liked to walk by the Minnewater on my way back from the train station in the evenings--sometimes stopping to get some Belgian fries with mayonnaise!

This is the bridge across the canal to the Begijnhof.  In the background you can see the tower from the Church of Our Dear Lady.

I'd never seen the Begijnhof so beautiful before.  The courtyard garden was filled with daffodils.

We went into their chapel to wait for Vespers to begin (evening prayers).  A few nuns were saying the rosary in front of a gilded wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, the oldest of its kind in Bruges.  Vespers lasted about half an hour.  Many of the nuns are quite elderly and have pretty shaky voices, but they sounded great as they chanted the psalms in Latin Gregorian chant.  Here are two of the sisters leaving the chapel on their way back to their houses.

"Always push to see one more church."  That's my motto, but sadly we only saw the outside of the Jesuit Church of St. Francis Xavier, formerly St. Walburga.  It was closed for the day.  It is really beautiful inside, and I wanted Karen to get to see a Baroque interior, but even without St. Francis Xavier's, it was a wonderful day in Bruges!