The Saint Irenaeus Church, Lyon, located on the heights of

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

in the neighborhood of St. Irenaeus (

5th arrondissement of Lyon The 5th arrondissement of Lyon is one of the nine arrondissements of the City of Lyon. History The 5th arrondissement was created on 24 March 1852 (date of creation of the first five arrondissements). It is the historic center of Lyon. It is at ...

), is one of the oldest

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

es in France. It is named for

Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...

first

Bishop of Lyon The Archdiocese of Lyon (Latin: ''Archidiœcesis Lugdunensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Lyon''), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The Archbishops o ...

and

Primate of Gaul The Primate of the Gauls is a title given since 1079 to the archbishop of Lyon, former capital of the Three Gauls then land of the Roman Empire, and has described the authority he has exercised in the past over the other bishops of France. The pri ...

. Indeed, the crypt of the church dates from the 9th century, the beginning of the Carolingian period, while the

itself has been rebuilt, after many vicissitudes, in the early 19th century and completed in 1830. It makes the church a rare monument of the Middle Ages. The church is the subject of a classification as Monuments historiques from 1862.

Adrien Rougier Adrien Rougier (23 June 1892 – 1 July 1984) was a French organist, organ builder, conductor and composer. Life Born in Vernaison, from a family of silk merchants in Lyon, Rougier studied the piano and then the organ with Édouard Commett ...

was the titular organist from 1928 to 1932.

References

{{Coord, 45.7551, N, 4.8138, E, source:wikidata, display=title Roman Catholic churches in Lyon Monuments historiques of Lyon 5th arrondissement of Lyon