Paris - Saint Severin ( Originally Published 1921 ) The origin
of Saint-Severin is obscure. The supposition is that it existed
first as an oratory built in honour of a pious " solitaire," who
lived in Paris in the time of Childebert I and who took Clodoald
(Saint-Cloud), at the time that he escaped murder at the hands
of his uncles, as a disciple. It has been thought that this
oratory was consecrated by Saint-Cloud himself in memory of his
master. Other authors think that the church was called for the
abbot of Agaune. Be that as it may, the oratory on the site of
the hermitage, having been sacked by the Nor-mans, was rebuilt
in the Xlth century as the " Ecclesia Sancti Severi Solitarii,"
and became the chief church of an immense parish, comprising
nearly all of the southern part of Paris. In its actual state it
dates from the XIIIth century. The clocher, a square tower,
rises from the northwest angle; the elegance of its long,
pointed bays, with their pretty little columns at the
embrasures, and the fineness