Two stumpy towers of light-drenched Provence stone stand out on the skyline of Marseilles, seen over the blue water and the forest of sailing masts from the Vieux Port. The Abbey of St Victor is embedded in this ancient city, although not as revered as the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, overlooking everything and visible by everyone everywhere. All the major events of life, from exams to tragedies, journeys to anniversaries, draw people up the hill, regardless of what they believe. But religion did not begin with belief and does not live by belief alone.St Victor’s as a building does not pretend to be anything other than a hotchpotch. It doesn’t try to cover over the joins, where new additions to its fabric were added by long-forgotten building abbots whose relics went mi