It was during the 15th century that this small oratory, known as Chapelle de St. Martin de Saysssuel, was erected in the small village of Chasse, 12 miles south of Lyon. Five hundred years later, in the 1920s, a bright young French architect named Jacques Couëlle visiting the village saw the structure and decided it was a unique treasure in French architecture.

The chapel had deteriorated and had long been abandoned. Yet Couëlle was determined to preserve it. He spent months making careful architectural drawings of the chapel as well as measuring and numbering each of the oratory’s stones.

In 1926 Gertrude Hill Gavin, daughter of American railroad magnate James Hill, acquired the chapel and had it dismantled and transferred to her 50-acre estate on Long Island, N.Y. She attached it to an elegant French Renaissance chateau that Gavin also had brought to her estate from France.

Gavin commissioned an artist to create beautiful stained-glass windows for the chapel. As well, two other elements were added. The first was a Gothic altar. The second was the Joan of Arc stone.

Legend has it that St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431) prayed before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on this stone. After praying, she knelt and kissed the stone. As the story goes, this stone has remained colder than the stones that surround it even to this day.

In 1962, the Gavin estate came into the hands of the Marc Rojtman family. Just before the couple was to move into the New York estate, a fire struck the grounds. The chateau was gutted but the chapel was spared, as if by a miracle.

In 1964, the Rojtmans presented the chapel to the University of Marquette in Milwaukee. The chapel was once again disassembled and sent westward to be reconstructed. It took nine months to have the chapel taken apart with each stone marked in three places: green for the top, red for the bottom and then numbered to mark where it sat in relation to the other stones.

The chapel arrived on the Marquette campus in the form of a fleet of trucks stacked with stones and thousands of antique terra cotta roof tiles. Also in this shipment were period furnishings such as candlesticks, prie-dieux, vestments and a banner. All arrived as gifts from the Rojtmans. The nave of the chapel was lengthened, several windows were added and, in the floor, electric heating was introduced.

At the end of May 1966, after a three-week campus-wide celebration on the life and times of St. Joan of Arc, the chapel was dedicated to the brave girl soldier whose sanctity and devotion to Christ were so heroic and exemplary that she became patroness of France.

The Rojtmans requested that the St. Joan of Arc Chapel remain an active house of worship and not be turned into a museum. The university has honored that request to this day.

Small But Mighty

Strolling Marquette’s campus, I had an easy time finding the chapel. The ancient stone structure stands low but stately, a lovely anachronism among the buildings of a modern academic institution.

It was early spring during my visit. The chapel was surrounded by a plaza full of benches and landscaped flower beds waiting to bloom. A bare wooden cross stood in the middle of this area in front of the chapel entrance.

Opening the heavy wooden chapel doors, I felt like I was stepping back in time. The mid-afternoon sun shone long shafts of light through the tall windows, casting long shadows on the stark stone interior.

The space is small and intimate. It wouldn’t seat more than a few dozen people. Primitive kneelers, long warped benches and worn wooden chairs give the place a medieval feel, although I’m not certain as to their actual origin.

I knelt to pray in front of the altar above which hangs an old, wrought-iron chandelier. Behind the altar are images of the life of Christ, depicted in colorful stained glass. A sanctuary candle flickers to the right of the sanctuary. A small discolored bell, which is rung to mark the beginning of Mass, hangs near the sacristy doorway.

The Joan of Arc stone is on the left side of the sanctuary. A dark metal statue of the saint stands about waist-high near the first row of chairs.

I’ve visited some beautiful and ornate churches and cathedrals around the world, and I found this tiny chapel reconstructed in the middle of a college campus to have a modest magnificence all its own. It is that rich beauty found in the simple handiwork of a sacred little place dedicated ad majorem Dei gloriam (to the greater glory of God).

On May 30 the universal Church celebrates the feast of St. Joan of Arc. Her story is as fascinating and popular now as it was 500 years ago, as a recent spate of books, movies and TV documentaries attest.

While she is often depicted as a warrior woman — a rebel of sorts — Joan of Arc was a faithful young lady dedicated to deep prayer. She encouraged her troops to attend daily Mass. She is a fitting role model for university students eager to find meaningful ways to spend their energy and idealism.

Eddie O’Neill writes from

Green Bay, Wisconsin.

St. Joan of Arc Chapel

Marquette University

P.O. Box 1881

Milwaukee, WI 53201

marquette.edu/chapel

Planning Your Visit

Daily Mass is celebrated at noon when school is in session. Tours are available by contacting the university’s ministry office at (414) 288-6873.