Visit of Saint-Remi basilica

T he royal abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims might be less known than Saint-Denis in Paris, but it is no less prestigious. Closely linked to royalty and deeply attached to the figure of the great bishop Remi who baptized Clovis, king of the Franks, on Christmas day in 498, the abbey experienced a remarkable economic and spiritual development in the Middle Ages, and an equally important renewal in the 17th and 18th century. J ohn Baptist de La Salle, as his fellow citizens, was profoundly attached to the pilgrimage and patronage of Saint Remi. "He often took advantage of the night to pray in the basilica. " The sepulchre of Saint-Remi was the asylum where M de La Salle never failed to take refuge, when some storm rose threatening to ruin his work.” I f La Salle let himself be shut up at night in the abbey church, with the complicity of a monk, it was not to escape the difficulties of his life as a founder, but to consider them in faith before God. F or the Lasallian pilgrim, the abbey church Saint - Remi is as important as the Rue du Barbâtre or the Rue Neuve, leading to the heart of the personality of John Baptist de La Salle, and his relationship with God through prayer.