It’s hard to stand up in front of a Sunday Mass congregation and announce that in the coming week you’re going on pilgrimage to Paris (and this was before the opening ceremony of this year's Paris Olympics). Some people really can’t hide their disbelief; but there are indeed many holy sites in this city that has <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-black-color">been in the Catholic press so much recently for all the wrong reasons</mark>. <br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/mounting-catholic-pushback-against-olympic-games-opening-ceremony/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Mounting Catholic shock and pushback against Olympics’ ceremony</mark></a></strong>
At Fisher House in Cambridge this year we have been joined by a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Paris; he spoke effusively about the life of the Church at home and organised a pilgrimage for us, to show off some of its highlights.
I’d had a similar feeling of embarrassment more than ten years before. Back in 2012, having finished university, I was a pastoral assistant in some Anglican parishes. One of the clergy, a member of the Company of Mission Priests, an Anglican religious community and part of the International Vincentian family, took us to Paris to learn more about St Vincent de Paul. People couldn’t quite believe that I would go on pilgrimage to Paris then, and they didn’t believe it now.
At the heart of Paris there is, of course, Notre Dame, still under reconstruction and hopefully reopening in December. There is also the Sainte-Chapelle, although this is now entirely devoid of religious life and heaving with tourists. But on the Rive Gauche – an area home to the Sorbonne, and hardly a place associated with the Catholic faith – there stand a number of religious houses.
The most famous of these, and really one of the holiest places in Paris, is the Rue de Bac. The complex is the motherhouse of the Vincentian Daughters of Charity, founded by St Vincent de Paul and his collaborator St Louise de Marillac. The order began as a confraternity – the Ladies of Charity – helping St Vincent in his parish in Clichy. From these small origins one of the most impressive religious orders grew.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-need-for-christ-centred-volunteering-a-trustee-of-depaul-international-and-the-st-vincent-de-paul-society-reflects/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">The need for Christ-centred volunteering: a trustee of Depaul International and the SVP reflects</mark></a></strong>
In November 1830, St Catherine Labouré, then a novice, received a vision on the 27th of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who told her to cast a medal with the image of the Immaculate Conception. This became the Miraculous Medal, and the chapel of the mother house became a place of pilgrimage. It was here, during that 2012 trip, that I made the decision to become a Catholic. I still can’t quite put into words why it struck me in particular at that moment, but the decision I made a few months later to start receiving instruction began in that chapel.
En route to our accommodation for the evening, we stopped off at a small chapel in Montmartre. The chapel is not always open, and so we were greeted by its caretaker – an older gentleman who was educated by the Jesuits and has a deep love for the place and all that it represents. Below ground level is the site of the martyrdom of Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris.
St Denis refused to offer incense to the pagan gods and so was martyred, along with two companions. A small shrine was built, which was rediscovered in the 16th century. It was in that chapel that, on 15 August 1534, Saints Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Peter Faber and four other companions made their vows of religious poverty and chastity, and promised to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was the origin of the Society of Jesus. There, in the heart of the secular and touristy Montmartre, one of the most significant religious orders in history was born.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/that-unholy-parody-why-the-its-just-jolly-dionysus-claim-makes-things-even-worse/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">That unholy parody: Why the ‘It’s just jolly Dionysus’ claim makes things even worse</mark></a></strong>
Our home for the night was Sacré Cœur. The basilica stands at the top of the hill, and most come for the views across the city, but inside, a community of nuns have kept Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration since 1885, and so the basilica is, in a way, the Tabernacle of Paris. The community offer accommodation for the night, and ask that those staying take an hour of Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. This was an opportunity not only for prayer, but to understand a little more the beauty of the congregation’s work and charism; over this busy city Christ the King is adored in His Eucharistic Presence.
Our guide organised a packed schedule, and after a tour of the royal tombs at the monastery of St Denis, we returned to the Rue de Bac to visit the motherhouse of the Missions Étrangères de Paris, founded in 1658 to provide missionary priests for South East Asia and Canada. The order was set up with the purpose of planting the Church within the local context, and raising local vocations.
Like the Jesuits, the missionaries would often expect martyrdom within a very short time after their arrival. Their departure from Paris was dramatic; their families came to bid them farewell in the chapel, knowing that they would probably never see each other again. High on the wall hangs a picture, showing one such leave-taking. We spent a little time in quiet gratitude for the witness of these extraordinary young men.
It turns out I didn’t have to be so shamefaced in front of the congregation that Sunday, assuring them that I was definitely going on pilgrimage. Like many places in the world which have become glitzy and a little superficial, scratch the surface of Paris and there’s the beating heart of the Catholic faith.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/number-of-ordinations-in-france-rises-as-country-continues-to-buck-secular-trends/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Ordinations increase in France as country continues to buck secular trends</mark></a></strong><br><br><em>Photo: Competitors in the women's cycling road race cycle passing the Basilica of Sacré Cœur during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Paris, France, 4 August 2024. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
<em>Fr Albert Robertson OP is Assistant Chaplain at Fisher House, Cambridge</em>.<br><br><strong><strong>This article was written before the Paris Olympics and has been edited to incorporate recent events. The article originally appeared in the Summer Special July/August 2024 issue of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a></strong></strong>.
