The Pervasive Catholic spirit of Paris

by Gunther Simmermacher · November 25, 2014

In October a group of Southern Cross pilgrims, led by Bishop Joao Rodrigues of Tzaneen, returned from a pilgrimage to Portugal,Spain and France. In the final of four articles, GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks at the spirit of Catholicism in Paris.

The archangel Michael and the devil contest for souls in a relief above the main entrance to Notre Dame cathedral. (Photos: G?nther Simmermacher)

Paris means all sorts of different things to different people. The city of love, of course. The world’s fashion capital. The greatest concentration of art anywhere. The setting of some of the greatest works of literature and cinema. The landmarks of Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees.

And then there is Catholic Paris. For all the separation of state and church, and for every revolution’s assault on the faith, its spirit pervades the great city.

It is there in the neighbourhoods named after saints – Saint-Germain, Saint-Denis, Montmarte (Mount of the Martyr, St Denis) – and in the title of the city’s most famous cemetery, the Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise, named after Fr Francois de la Chaise (1624-1709), confessor to Louis XIV, the Sun King.

The interior of the Miraculous Medal chapel in Rue de Bac in the Montparnasse area of Paris. (Photo: G?nther Simmermacher)

And the city’s Catholicism is most evident in its many great churches: the Sacre-Coeur basilica and Sainte-Trinité in Montmartre; Saint-Severin and Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, on the steps of which one will find students from the nearby Sorbonne University, in the Latin Quarter; the church of Saint-Louis-des-Invalides, next to Napoleon’s tomb, and Saint-Eustache near the Louvre; Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Germain-des-Pres on the Left Bank; the stained glass extravaganza that is Sainte-Chapelle on the Isle de la Cite, and nearby the great cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris).

In our pilgrimage’s brief time in Paris it was not possible to see all of these churches. In fact, we saw only two, both with a Marian theme.

After St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican, Notre Dame might well be the world’s most famous church. Built in the 12th century over the city’s first church, which was dedicated to Stephen, it was in Roman times the site of a temple to Jupiter. In literature it was the abode of the bell-ringer Quasimodo in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Victor Hugo also used Notre Dame as a metaphor in the novel Les Miserables, when the law-loving and God-fearing but merciless policeman Javert commits suicide on the Pont au Change bridge, situated between Notre-Dame cathedral, representing God, and the Palace of Justice, representing the law.

The reliefs on the facade of Notre Dame are richly symbolic, too. Above the right entrance, they play out the Last Judgment, with the Archangel Michael and the devil contesting for souls. A striking image depicts a female devil squatting in an obscene pose over the heads of a bishop and a king, a reminder that even the powerful and mighty are subject to God’s judgment. The left entrance depicts the assumption of Our Lady, surrounded by the apostles.

While our group received detailed instruction on the exterior of the cathedral, thanks to Paris guide and art historian Salvatore Rotolo, we were denied a good look around the interior but for a good reason. As we arrived in the morning, a long procession of deacons, priests, bishops and Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris was entering the church for an ordination Mass of ten permanent deacons.

Notre Dame cathedral

Having seen many great Paris landmarks — the Eiffel Tower, both Arcs de Triomphe, the Louvre, Alexander Bridge, Les Invalides and so on – and made time to explore and shop in the Latin Quarter, our group made its way to the bustling Rue de Bac in the Montparnasse area for our final Mass in the chapel of the Miraculous Medal. It was our fourth site of Marian apparitions, after Fatima, Zaragoza and Lourdes.

Between July and December 1830, a 24-year-old novice of the Daughters of Charity, Sr Catherine Laboure, reported three apparitions of Our Lady, following earlier visions of Christ and the heart of St Vincent de Paul, co-founder of her order. All took place in the chapel at 140 Rue de Bac, built in 1813.

In her apparitions, Mary instructed Sr Catherine to have medals struck featuring the image in which she appeared inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe, with her hands coming out as rays of light — and the invocation: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

After some investigation into Sr Catherine’s claim by the archdiocese, this was done, with a Parisian goldsmith named Adrien Vachette executing the design. Shortly after, in February 1832, Paris suffered a cholera epidemic which killed 20 000 people. The Daughters of Charity distributed the medals at that time and many survivors attributed their cure to the protection received through the medal. And so it became known as the Miraculous Medal. It remains a very popular devotion in the Catholic Church.

I have had the opportunity to visit the chapel twice this year; privately in May and during this pilgrimage. What is particularly striking is the presence of young people at Rue de Bac. Many of them seem to pop in for a prayer, and then go on their way. It is a busy place, as the long queues in the gift shop testified. The chapel is a place of intense prayer; the air is thick with faith.

Portal to the Miraculous chapel in Rue de Bac.

It has been remodelled several times since St Catherine’s time. Its present appearance dates to 1930, the centenary of the apparitions. Only the tabernacle is unchanged. The altar of the apparitions has been moved to the right of the sanctuary.

It houses the tombs, in glass reliquaries, of St Catherine, who died at 70 in 1876, and the co-founder of the Daughters of Charity, St Louise de Marillac, who died in 1660. The tomb of St Vincent de Paul, who also died in 1660, is in the Vincentian church around the corner, in Rue de Sevres, but his heart is kept in the Miraculous Medal chapel.

And with a final Mass at Rue de Bac our Marian pilgrimage of prayer for the cause of Benedict Daswa ended, a journey of faith that took us through three countries to places of Marian apparitions and the places of great saints.