Originator of Gothic architecture, abbot of Saint-Denis
The twelfth-century abbot of the abbey of Saint-Denis in France, acknowledged as the originator of Gothic architecture. Before him, Romanesque churches were thick-walled and small-windowed, dim and heavy. Rebuilding the abbey church of Saint-Denis, he combined the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, and the flying buttress, letting the walls grow thin and the windows grow vast — sunlight poured for the first time through great sheets of stained glass into the church. He believed material light was a stair toward the divine light, and so made the church a vessel filled with colored heavenly light. The Gothic space of "soaring upward, filled with light" was born, and swept across Europe.
Suger’s pursuit of extreme light and splendor at Saint-Denis drew criticism from monks who preached austerity (such as Bernard of Clairvaux). He argued that precisely through these beautiful, radiant material lights the soul could be lifted toward the invisible divine light. He built this belief into architecture — the burning rose windows of the Gothic church are the material embodiment of that sentence.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.