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Shawn - Just turned on EWTN and saw that they have gone to the "Benedictine arrangement" for the Altar. While they always had Cross and a candles - they have new candlesticks - all the way across the Altar - another good sign!
Fr. B: I noticed the same thing last night. At the time I thought I just hadn't been paying attention. Just goes to show how a change like that is instantly noticeable.
Yes, they have six gold traditional candles across the altar and a two sided crucifix, step by step!!!
Two-sided crucifix? just put the altar back against the wall already!
St Pierre is indeed a splendid church -in any American city it would be a cathedral. The stained glass is particularly important - rather than the typical blues and reds of early and high Gothic it is mainly grisaille - executed in greys and browns and yellows; that's why the church is much brighter!
I"m with you Brian, the altar should be moved against the wall already
One thing to keep in mind that at the time the church was built the altar would have been free standing even though the celebrant faced east. Even if it had an altarpiece and riddle posts it would not have been against the wall. Indeed there is often no wall behind the High Altar in a this type of gothic church due to the apsidal termination of the east end, although there was sometimes a choir enclosure like the one in Chartres cathedral also at Albi and Amiens. The medieval rite involved censing a complete circuit of the altar and not just the front. Even when large a large reredos became the custom, often it was pierced with lateral doors so that the sacred ministers could complete the circuit of the altar. The arrangement survives in England like Winchester cathedral, Westminster & St Alban's abbey. The gradines did not come into picture really until the Baroque period when there was a multiplication of candles and reliquaries. Accept during the feast of Relics reliquaries were not generally put on the altar itself. Medieval church was very reserved in what got placed on the altar. Other than the items directly connected with the Mass nothing else was permitted, not even books of the Divine Office which were on lecterns in the choir. A good modern example of what a Medieval altar is in the Lady Chapel at Downside Abbey. A drawing survives of the High Altar of Notre Dame in Paris in the early 18th century before the addition of the Baroque altar which shows the riddle posts and hangings with a Pyx for the Sacrament suspended above the altar with the customary two candles on the altar. Often what we often see as a 'gothic' altar is generally a 19th century re-creation which is basically a Baroque altar with gothic detailing.
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