The Famous Paris Hill

New Zealand Tablet, 13 October 1910, Page 1661

The Famous Paris Hill

I climbed the heights of Montmartre (says a recent visitor to Paris), to see the great Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and to get the superb view of Paris which is to be had from that elevation on a clear day. Montmartre has great attractions for the. Catholic and the Irishman. The great Basilica, raised to make reparation for the outrages upon God and His Church committed by the Communists in 1871, is enough to induce any Catholic who finds himself in Paris to negotiate the many steps that lead to the top. We climbed these countless steps because we did not know till next day that there was a tramcar at the other side of the hill! But what Catholic would not desire to ascend the mount, however he got there, and join in the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that goes on by way of reparation for dark deeds done? And an attraction for all Irishmen is the old Cemetery of Montmartre, where the remains of popr Pamela Fitzgerald were first deposited—after they had narrowly escaped being lost in the pits where bodies of the poor and friendless were carelessly laid. As many now know, the remains of the once beautiful Pamela were ultimately taken from Paris to London, and buried at Thames Ditton, opposite Hampton Court Palace, in the same grave with Pamela's brother-in-law, a brother of her husband, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. But this spot has another and holier source of fame. Here, it is said, St. Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, and his companions were martyred in the year 270. Some state that, from this circumstance, the hill was originally called Mons Marty rum —the Martyrs' Hill. Louis VI., in the middle of the twelfth century, founded a Benedictine Abbey upon this spot, to which the Church of St. Peter of Montmartre, on the summit of the hill, belonged. And it is the memory of a lifetime to adore the Blessed Sacrament in the great Basilica, and take part in the Reparation that is there perpetually made. That one should be able to join with those of countless nationalities assembled in the stately temple was something to be profoundly grateful for. The catholicity of the Church was well illustrated by the persons of divers nations who knelt together in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament with a common faith and purpose. It was from this elevated spot that the horrors of the Commune of 1871 commenced. In March the National Guard, with their artillery, occupied the heights of Montmartre. On St. Patrick's Day they were there, and, no doubt, on that day the feast of the Apostle of Ireland was celebrated at the Irish College over near the Pantheon. The next day the insurgents climbed Montmartre, killed General Lecorate, and General Clement Thomas, who were in charge of the National Guard, and seized the guns. Then began the Communist rebellion, which raged for a month and a half—another Reign of Terror, which almost exceeded in its horrors that of the previous century. On May 24 the troops dislodged the Communists from. Montmartre, and directed their guns upon the Cemetery of PercLachaise and the Hills of Chaumont, where the Communists had taken up positions. A public park and a graveyard were the last places occupied by the insurgents! On the top of one of those hills, which are now a public park, was the place of execution in the Middle Ages. Indeed, it was not till 1761 that the gallows were removed from Montfaucon. In 1865 a great dust-heap, the resort of thieves and cut-throats, was converted into a beautiful park at a cost of three and a half million francs. One of the streets running up to the park is called the Rue Cavendish. Who was this Cavendish? The Chaumont Hills were one of the very last places held by the Communists in 1871. They received a ceaseless cannonading from Montmartre, and at length were driven out on May 27. This was not the first time that Montmartre, with its magnificent range of* the city, had been made a battery. On the second last day of March, 1814, the mount was the scene of the last struggle between the French soldiers and the Russian and Prussian allies. The French were defeated, and Napoleon went to Elba.