He was expected! After the presentation of the front of last year, the back of the immense altarpiece of the Trinity, created by the Lyonnais painter Bruno Desroche, was unveiled and blessed by Bishop de Germay, on Sunday June 12, for the feast of the Trinity, in the church of the 8th arrondissement of Lyon.

It was a long-term job for the artist, but also for an entire parish that has been involved since 2019 around this somewhat crazy project: to create a huge altarpiece of 37 m2 in total, double-sided, on the theme de la Trinité, for the Church of the Holy Trinity, located in the popular and growing 8th arrondissement of Lyon, where people of all origins meet, believers or not.

After the inauguration of the triptych on the back side a year earlier, on this Sunday, June 12, 2022, Trinity Day, it is the turn of the back to be opened, presented and blessed by Bishop Olivier de Germay, who presides over the mass. in a crowded church. This “Theophany in the sky of Lyon”, represents Christ on the cross, glorious, accompanied by the Father and the Holy Spirit, on Place Bellecour, and surrounded by the saints of heaven and earth, all 11 meters long.

Parishioners as role models

In accordance with his unique style, which the public was able to discover with the stations of the cross he made in 2019 for the Saint-Nizier church in Lyon, Bruno Desroche likes to paint his contemporaries, with their look today, jeans and sneakers, laptop or bicycle in hand, in order to “invite the viewer to enter the image”. And it is often the parishioners who serve as role models. Here the sexton in Abraham, there a manager of the Saint Vincent de Paul teams next to a homeless person from the neighborhood, or even a young couple from the parish, with their first-born in the pushchair. “So that everyone feels called and understands that Christ is alive and present today, in our midst”, explains the painter.

The artist adds that he did not invent anything since for centuries, religious works allowed a catechism in images, so that the Faith spreads to the greatest number. And it works, even today, if we believe the passages of some high school students or children of catechism, both amazed and full of questions in front of this gigantic altarpiece. “The young people feel both concerned and capable by the painting”, says the artist who still remembers the passage of a class of high school students, when he was “under water in front of the scale of his project. in progress and not very available”, and whose questions enabled him to understand the importance and the necessity of his work, while he was getting discouraged.

Because he does not hide it, Bruno Desroche suffered to achieve this monumental work, and during the inauguration, he thus humbly pointed out to the assembly, who came in large numbers, “I would really like that like me, when you look at this great painting, you said to yourself: “It was not a strong man, but a weak man who painted this”. And let this work be a testimony for everyone, of what God can do with our hands when we cry out to Him every day”.

Exceptionally, to celebrate its inauguration, the altarpiece will remain open until September 14, the day of the glorious Cross. Then, for years, even centuries to come, it will remain closed 44 weeks a year, punctuating parish life. Symbolically, each year, the altarpiece will be reopened on the evening of the Easter Vigil, on Holy Saturday for a few weeks, until the following Trinity Sunday, the day of the parish feast. One more way of catechizing, with this symbolism of waiting and unveiling.