Stories from Notre Dame

Has Paris ever known a year as exciting as 2024? First, the Olympics, which captured the hearts of sports fans and Francophiles worldwide and now the reopening of Notre Dame, just five years after the devastating fire which nearly destroyed it. Touring the cathedral’s newly renovated interior and stunned at the splendor all around him, President Emmanuel Macron surely spoke for all of France when he summed up his feelings in just six words: “My goodness, it’s beautiful. It’s sublime.”

There are many reasons to rejoice. France’s best-loved cathedral has reopened for prayer, Parisians can see that one of their favorite landmarks has been rescued from near-oblivion, the 12 million people who used to visit Notre Dame every year can come back. Actually, the authorities expect that number to rise, perhaps to go as high as 15 million and while it is first and foremost a spiritual destination, many also come to enjoy the cathedral’s cultural and historical heritage. Here, as it reopens, are some of the tales from history which illustrate Notre Dame’s unique place in Paris and in France.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris (@notredamedeparis)

A Medieval Center of Worship and Learning

When Maurice de Sully, Bishop of Paris, laid the first stone of the new cathedral in 1163, he invited Pope Alexander III to the ceremony and he engaged the best architects and stonemasons of the day. All of this underlined the importance of his new project and sure enough, the result – not completed until 200 years later – was one of Europe’s finest and most influential gothic cathedrals. A renowned center of learning grew up around the cathedral and gradually evolved into another great Parisian institution, the Sorbonne.

The Holy Relics

Louis IX, the future Saint Louis, carried the Holy Relics he bought on crusade in Jerusalem back to Paris and ordained that they should be kept at Notre Dame until he had the nearby Sainte Chapelle built to house them. It must have been quite something to witness when, on August 19th, 1239, a procession led by Louis himself arrived at the cathedral. He was barefoot, wearing just a simple tunic with the Crown of Thorns itself on his head. He carried two other precious items, said to be a nail from the cross on which Christ was crucified and a sliver of the cross itself. Thus he established Notre Dame as one of Europe’s great centers of Christendom.

The Retrial of Joan of Arc

Perhaps the most poignant moment in the whole of the cathedral’s history occurred in 1455, when a retrial was held, 24 years after Joan of Arc had been condemned to death and burned in the marketplace at Rouen. A panel of theologians gathered to hear statements from over a hundred witnesses including, most movingly, her mother Isabelle who recalled her daughter’s “fear of God and respect for the tradition of the Church” and damned the original trial as “perfidious, violent, iniquitous and without shadow of right.”

In July the following year came the verdict: at the original trial there had been “fraud, calumny, iniquity and contradiction and manifest errors of fact and of law.” Joan should be proclaimed innocent. But the words of her mother ring out across the centuries, describing how her daughter had suffered – “they put her to death very cruelly by fire” – and calling for the damnation of the souls of those who had done “irreparable damage to me and mine.”

A Poignant Wedding

On January 1st 1537, Madeleine de France, the daughter of François I, married James V, king of Scotland, at Notre Dame. François had lavished gifts on his beloved third daughter, commissioning the finest craftsmen and merchants to supply jewels, fine linens and silks and a lavishly trimmed bed. A raised walkway was constructed so that onlookers could see Madeleine and her ladies making their way into the cathedral, and admire the golden trimmings and silver embroidery which embellished their dresses. After the wedding, a great banquet was held, followed by two weeks of tournaments and further celebrations.

But Madeleine, still only 16, had always been frail and suffered from tuberculosis. The couple waited until May and warmer weather before travelling to Scotland, but the journey proved exhausting. As her health weakened, French doctors were sent for. In June, Madeleine wrote to her father saying she felt a little better, but on July 7th she died in her new husband’s arms. She is buried at the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh where she is remembered as “the Summer Queen.”

The Scarlet Wedding

When Henri de Navarre, the future Henri IV, married Marguerite de Valois on August 18th, 1572, the ceremony took place outside Notre Dame because the groom, as a Huguenot, was not allowed inside the cathedral. His marriage to a Catholic princess was intended to end the bloodshed between these two factions. No expense was spared, as Marguerite later described when she wrote: “I was set out in the most royal manner. I wore a crown on my head with a regal close dress of ermine, and I blazed in diamonds.” She arrived at the cathedral along a specially built raised platform, her long blue train spreading out behind her on the golden cloth which covered it.

Lavish festivities had been planned, including a wedding breakfast and four days of balls, masques and banquets. But tragedy struck. Thousands of Protestants had come to Paris to celebrate the wedding and within days many of them were brutally slaughtered by Catholics opposed to the marriage in what became known as the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Because of this dreadful bloodshed, historians later dubbed this “the scarlet wedding.”

Damage During the Revolution

The church was loathed by many of the revolutionaries of 1789 and Notre Dame, like so many other churches, was seized and rededicated to “the Cult of Reason.” Looting and destruction followed, such as the tearing down and beheading of the 28 statues of biblical kings along the west façade. The rioters mistakenly thought they represented French kings and so dealt them the same grisly treatment as they had meted out to Louis XVI. In further desecration, the Virgin Mary was seized from the altar and replaced by the “Goddess of Liberty,” and the building was repurposed as a warehouse for the storage of food.

Napoleon’s Coronation

In 1801, Napoleon restored Notre Dame to the Catholic Church and preparations began to clean it up for his coronation which took place in 1804, inviting Pope Pius VII to officiate. It was to be a lavish affair. Side altars were removed so that tiered seating could be installed and the decorations included chandeliers, tapestries and velvet hangings. The artist Jacques-Louis David was commissioned to paint the whole spectacle. Napoleon, dressed in a red, ermine-trimmed velvet cloak, processed from the Tuileries to Notre Dame, eager to be seen by as many of his new subjects as possible.

The ceremony tells us much about Napoleon. At the moment of coronation he took the crown of laurel leaves from the pope, turned away and crowned himself. No one, said this act of defiance, was above the emperor in status. Josephine then knelt at his feet and he placed her crown on her head. Napoleon’s mother had declined to attend the service in protest at her son’s egotism, and an amusing tit-for-tat ensued. Napoleon instructed the artist David to paint her into his picture anyway, to imply she had been there. But when asked what she thought of her son’s new status, she apparently replied that it was all well and good “provided it lasts.”

Two World Wars

Notre Dame, protected by sandbags, was spared major structural damage during the First World War, although it was hit by shells several times. When the armistice was signed in the nearby forest of Compiegne early on the morning of November 11th, 1918, “shots of peace” were fired from the top of the Eiffel Tower, followed by celebratory peals from the bells of Notre Dame and other Paris churches. 1.3 million Frenchmen had been killed in the war, and a Te Deum, or service of thanksgiving, was held in the cathedral to mark the end of the bloodshed.

The cathedral also evaded major damage during World War II and on August 26th, 1944, the day after the Liberation of Paris, it was at the center of the celebrations. General de Gaulle marched along the Champs Élysées to Notre Dame, where a service was to be held, but the drama of battle was not quite over. As he arrived at the cathedral, shots rang out, causing panic in the crowd which had gathered to watch, but people were stunned to see him completely ignore the threat and march resolutely straight ahead and into the building. One BBC reporter described it as the bravest thing he’d ever seen anyone do.

A Bell to Go Down in History

Notre Dame’s largest, oldest bell, the Emmanuel, has tolled on momentous occasions such as to mark the destruction wrought in New York on 9/11. In 2024, to mark the Paris Olympics, a new bell has been commissioned. It weighs 500 kg, is cast in bronze and is engraved with the words “Paris 2024.” It was installed at the Stade de France and rung by gold medal winners throughout the Olympic Games. Afterwards it was moved to one of the towers at Notre Dame and it will ring out, along with the cathedral’s other bells, at the service of dedication and on into the future.

December 2024 marks a huge milestone in the cathedral’s history, the moment when worshippers and other visitors can return. There is more work to be done, most notably in the area all around the cathedral which will be transformed into a pedestrian-friendly green space over the next few years. Those in charge are, quite rightly, looking forward, but we should remember to look back into history too and recall some of the many, many momentous events which have taken place at Notre Dame.

To visit Notre Dame

After a week or so of special events, ordinary public visiting will begin on December 16th.
You are advised to book a time slot through the cathedral’s website. See here for more details.
Opening hours 7:45 am – 7 pm.
See the website for times of Mass.