Church of the Week: Four Churches of St.-Marie-Aux-Mines

This week's church of the week is actually four, which the lovely Robin and I visited on our 2010 walking tour of St.-Marie-Aux-Mines in the Volges Mountains of France. We came to this beautiful village in Alsace-Lorraine because we knew it to have been at one time the home of our ancestor, Jakob Hochstetler.

The Church of Sainte Marie Madeleine (Mary Magdalene), a Catholic church at the center of town, was the subject of last week's church of the week. It was the first church we found on our walk through the town.

We also discovered the Eglise Lutherienne des Chaines, built in 1846, which seemed to be shuttered.

Down the street was the 1848 St. Louis Church (the 1840's seem to have been a great time for churches in St.-Marie-Aux-Mines).

The final church we found was the Temple Reforme, or Reformed Church, I take it, which dates to 1634. This seemed the most likely to be active, other than the Catholic Church. Interestingly, it seems likely to be one of two buildings we saw on our visit (the other is a hotel and restaurant) that would have been standing when our ancestor lived here.

We were saddened at the seeming inactivity of these latter three churches, which at one time of course must have been thriving and perhaps even evangelistic. In any case, they reminded us to keep the fires of our faith well-tended, lest they dwindle and die.