The chaine de puys, a chain of volcanic mountains, rises out of the plains of Auvergne in southeastern France. Teilhard was born and raised in this area.
The picturesque town of Clermont-Ferrand, provincial capital of Auvergne, maintains its legacy look today. The Teilhard family owned a townhouse near this street.
Across the street from the house where Teilhard’s family lived in Clermont-Ferrand, this statue entitled "Spirit and Matter" offers an implicit memorial to Teilhard.
“Spirit and Matter” depicts the scriptural story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, which Teilhard in his writing likened to the tension between spirit and matter.
Notre Dame de l’Assumption, called “the black cathedral,” dominates Clermont-Ferrand. It was built from volcanic stone quarried nearby.
The awe-inspiring arches of the “black cathedral” may have helped shape the reverence Teilhard felt in the presence of the divine when he attended services here as a young boy.
Sarcenat, the house in which Teilhard was born, as it looked at the time he was growing up.
Sarcenat, Teilhard's boyhood home,as passersby see it today.
The tree-arbored lane that leads to Sarcenat from the main road, Rue de Teilhard de Chardin.
The baptismal font in the tiny church of Notre Dame in Orcines, within walking distance of Sarcenat. The plaque declares that Teilhard was baptized here on July 21, 1881.
Most of the deceased in Teilhard’s family are buried in this plot in Clermont-Ferrand. Teilhard is buried in Poughkeepsie, New York.
These religious artifacts, still present in the sacristy of a small church where Teilhard later offered Mass, speak to the traditional piety in which he was nurtured as a child.
This carving atop a pillar in Teilhard’s parish church in Clermont-Ferrand depicts the original sin of Adam and Eve. The doctrine of original sin was to play a decisive role in the course of his life.
The Puy de Dome, the highest elevation of the volcanic peaks that make up the chaine de puys.
The trail to the Puy de Pariou, the volcanic peak closest to Teilhard’s home. He walked this path often.
Teilhard at the age of 12.
Teihard as a Jesuit novice, age 18
The school in Cairo where Teilhard taught Muslim students physics and philosophy during 1905-08. This was his first exposure to the East.
Traditional group photo of the faculty at the Cairo school where Teilhard taught (he is standing seventh from the left).
Teilhard with his philosophy students in Cairo, 1908.
