Miraculously missed by burning beams falling from the roof on April 15, 2019, and waiting for five years to make it back to Notre Dame Cathedral, the 14th-century statue of the Virgin of Paris returned home 15 November.
Accompanied by thousands of Parisians praying, singing and lighting candles, the faithful walked their Virgin to Paris’ most iconic church, restored after the fire.
Since the fire, the statue, also referred to as Virgin and Child, or the Virgin of the Pillar, has been housed near the Louvre in the Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, from where the procession started at 6 pm local time.
For Auxiliary Bishop Philippe Marsset of Paris, the statue represents “a kind of miracle.”
“Many Christians saw the fire as a sign of the purification God was asking his church to experience,” he said.
“The statue of the Virgin was spared in the flames and the waters. It remained standing, as a sign that heaven was watching over us, and that this disaster would not have the last word.”
It seemed like the entire city, typically proud of its “laïcité,” or secularism, wanted to be with her the night of 15 November.
All major newspapers and websites in the country invited Parisians to join throughout the day, making her the top of the news cycle, with a brief pause to report on surprise off-camera “reconnaissance” visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, who sneaked unexpectedly inside the cathedral 15 November, before the announced meeting planned on site with the archbishop of Paris 29 November, Le Figaro confirmed.
The Virgin of Paris quickly took back center stage in the evening. Standing 6 feet high and sculpted in white stone, the copy of the original statue was solemnly walked to the cathedral as the original was transported by a special truck.
From 1855—the first major restoration of the cathedral in the 19th century—it was standing at the foot of the southeast pillar of the transept crossing, a position that earned the statue the name Virgin of the Pillar.
Transporting the real statue of the Virgin on foot was out of the question for security reasons.
Instead, everyone was able to witness her departure by truck, before setting off, with candles and singing, behind a replica, illuminated and decorated with white flowers.
The procession followed along the banks of the Seine River toward the Île de la Cité, one of two Parisian islands and home to Notre Dame Cathedral.
Arriving in front of the cathedral at around 7 pm, the pilgrims were greeted by the singing of the Maîtrise Notre Dame, the cathedral’s choir.
The archbishop blessed the original statue, with the crate carrying it opened so that it could be seen. The truck then entered the cathedral’s construction site so the original statue could be installed inside the cathedral.