In what is seen by the church of Paris as a triumphant return after its cathedral’s 2019 fire, the famous statue of the Virgin of the Pillar will return to Notre Dame Cathedral 15 November.
“She is indeed Our Lady of all humanity, Our Lady of the peoples, Our Lady of all those who seek, Our Lady of all those who weep,” Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris said 13 November ahead of the 7-8 December celebrations of the reopening of the cathedral.
Starting at 6 pm 15 November the archbishop will lead a procession through the streets of Paris, following the statue of the Virgin, which will be transported inside the cathedral after a torchlit prayer vigil on the forecourt.
“It is also a significant spiritual time for our diocese, and it is for this reason that the archbishop of Paris and the cathedral team wanted to involve the faithful of Paris—and those passing through the capital—in this event, by organising a large Marian procession,” said Father Stéphane-Paul Bentz, Notre Dame’s chaplain.
More than 6 feet high, this 14th-century statue is Notre Dame’s most emblematic object. It was surprisingly spared by the fire on 15 April, 2019, when it stood at the transept crossing under the cathedral’s spire, which the fire destroyed.
“The new ambo will be located at the foot of this statue, to show that the Virgin Mary is the first hearer of the Word of God,” the archbishop told journalists.
Since the fire, the Virgin and Child, also referred to as the Virgin of Paris or the Virgin of the Pillar, has been housed near the Louvre in the church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, from where the procession will start.
As Our Lady will return to Notre Dame, the bells of the cathedral’s north belfry will ring solemnly for the first time, following the technical tests already carried out on 8 November.
“For us Catholics, this cathedral is a place God makes his home,” Archbishop Ulrich stressed.
“It is a possible place of encounter between believers and non-believers, a place where we can all feel brothers and sisters, and also a possible place of personal encounter with God.”
Archbishop Ulrich announced that French President Emmanuel Macron will speak on the cathedral’s forecourt 15 November and officially visit the cathedral 29 November with the Paris archbishop.
“It is now time to rediscover Notre Dame, to reopen its doors to the 14 to 15 million faithful and visitors that we expect, without any distinction, to allow them too to marvel and meditate before so much beauty,” cathedral’s rector-archpriest Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas said.
“I realise how much the opening of the cathedral is a sign of hope… the sign of the victory of life over death, of light over darkness. What seemed lost has found life again.”
