He was the last spiritual heir of Father Suger.
The former bishop of the diocese of Évry (Essonne) Mgr Guy Herbulot, at the origin of the only cathedral built in France in the 20th century, died on Sunday at the age of 96.
The diocese paid tribute on Tuesday in a
press
release to "
the bishop builder from 1992 to 1995
", which grew about twenty years ago, in the heart of the new town of Évry and its more than 50,000 inhabitants , the Saint-Corbinien Cathedral of the Resurrection.
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Built in a contemporary style about twenty kilometers south of Paris, the cathedral is recognizable among a thousand, thanks to its cylindrical shape and its brick and glass elevations.
Designed by the Swiss architect Mario Botta, to whom we also owe the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the daring building without a bell tower was inaugurated in 1996 and blessed in person, in 1997, by Pope John. Paul II.
At the time, the Holy Father hailed a
“daring edifice”
and an
“admirable space”
.
The Swiss architect Mario Botta inscribed the building in a cylinder of bricks, truncated and opening on the sky through a glass roof.
PASCAL PAVANI / AFP
Overcrowded since the 1960s, Évry housed only two modest places of worship before the major construction site undertaken in the 1990s,
"a medieval church and a modern church that looked like a shed"
, was remembered for the AFP Bernard Lecomte, friend of the bishop emeritus and guide of the cathedral of Évry.
Deeming these sacred spaces
"too small"
, Bishop Herbulot wanted to build a cathedral
"much larger, with a universal dimension"
, vicar Juvénal Rutumbu told AFP.
Ordained a priest in 1950, Guy Herbulot had donned the bishop's miter in 1974, according to the website of the Catholic Church in France. Reached by the age limit in 2000, he was replaced by Bishop Michel Dubost, who still holds his cathedral there. A vigil in honor of the Bishop Emeritus will take place on Thursday. His funeral will be held Friday afternoon, between the walls of the cathedral he had built.