Madam, - Seamus Martin's Irishman's Diary of January 8th on the Da Vinci Code's unmentioned but "key" village, Rennes-le-Chateau, was very interesting. I would like to say that the words inscribed over the church door, "Terribilis est locus iste", should be translated as "This is an awesome place". In Late Latin, "terribilis" can mean "demanding reverence or veneration".
The words on the church are in fact part of a text in the Latin Bible, and are taken from the book of Genesis, chapter 28, verse 17. After Jacob had a vision of a ladder reaching from heaven to earth, "he was afraid and said: How awesome is this place! It is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven". A suitable text to put over the door of a church. - Yours, etc.,
IGNATIUS FENNESSY, OFM, Franciscan Library, Seafield Road, Killiney, Co Dublin.