Pro Patria

I thought a lot about Veterans' Day this year, having watched Ken Burns' World War II special. I remembered that nearly every church I'd been in while traveling in Europe had a place to commemorate their soldiers who had died.

This one's in Lyon: a reclining WWI soldier a top a bier that has the words Pro Patria, "For Country," carved in it. His head is tilted, as if to see the light from the window. I always think of that poem by Wilfred Owen "Dulce et Decorum Est," the result of a mixing of the horrors of war with a young writer's sensibility.

Here's a more ethereal tribute, the golden hue washing into the blue from the overhead stained glass windows. This church was damaged in the time of Napoleon and the craters from the cannon shells are still visible in the doorway over the church.