A few years ago, on one of our last days before returning to the US from a three-year stint in Austria, we took a walk along a path through the vineyards hugging the slopes above Neustift am Walde, a suburb of Vienna.
The entire hill was blanketed in the sunset glow of a late June evening, and we stopped at a roadside shrine built in thanksgiving for deliverance from a plague in the 1600s.
Both of us felt an indescribable sense of peace at the scene, mixed in with melancholy at the poor state of the statues and carvings. One of us commented how wonderful it would be to restore shrines like these if only we had the money, time, wherewithal, etc.
Europe is covered in such shrines. Like boulders left behind by receding glaciers, they and the village churches that dot the European landscape are mute testaments to the Christian faith that marked Europe for centuries and that Matthew Arnold wrote of in Dover Beach:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
We started “Save Our Shrines” with the memory of that evening in mind. We may still not have the time, money, wherewithal, etc to fully dedicate ourselves to such restorations, but we seek to signal-boost those who do.
One such group we recently discovered is a French organization called “SOS Calvaires.” [Calvaires is the French word for roadside shrines, which can be called “calvaries” in English, too.] The website Aleteia recently profiled them:
SOS Calvaires started as a small venture in Southwest France, and now has spread throughout the country. With more than 800 members in around 25 local groups, these volunteers work hard to restore the beauty in the French countryside.
In ancient times crosses and crucifixes marked the entrances to villages. They were erected centuries ago at crossroads, in country areas as way markers, and to indicate the presence of sacred places. Over the years, these crosses have become run down, damaged through pollution, and even vandalized.
The SOS Calvaires’ website (in French, but auto-translated in Chrome), states:
The SOS Calvaires association, a recognized association of general interest, aims to bring together all those who are interested in safeguarding the shrines, oratories and chapels that make up our heritage, in order to restore and maintain them. The particularity of our association is that we are committed to covering all the costs related to the restoration of each place. It is composed mainly of young Catholic members, young and dynamic.
Our goal is to restore several shrines per month.
SOS Calvaires is an apolitical association; it is not linked to any Catholic movement.
SOS Calvaires has a YouTube channel documenting their progress. The videos are in French but pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words.
This video shows the team restoring and then replacing a crucifix in the village of Soulaire-et-Bourg in western France:
This one documents a young couple who are renovating a crumbling 19th century chapel that was built on 16th century foundations:
In addition to their website and YouTube channel, SOS Calvaires is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
They find shrines to restore by encouraging supporters to download their app (Android only, apparently) and upload photos of derelict crosses that the organization can add to their database.
France’s strict secular regime prohibits the building of new roadside shrines, but there are over 100,000 already existing, with approximately 70% considered to be in poor shape.
SOS Calvaires has the goal of restoring 100 of these shrines in 2022.
If you would like to support this wonderful organization, please consider donating directly on their website. In addition, any paid subscriptions that result from this post will be donated to SOS Calvaires.
SOS Calvaires ends each of their videos with the phrase Priez pour la France! Pray for France indeed!