Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, Paris
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Saint-Étienne-des-Grès was a church and
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, formerly located in the
Latin Quarter The Latin Quarter of Paris (, ) is an urban university campus in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne. Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros, t ...
on the Rue Saint-Jacques.


History

Saint-Étienne-des-Grès was located on the Rue Saint-Jacques, on the site of the present Faculty of Law. It was one of the early centers of
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
in Paris; it stood on a site said to be that of an oratory which was erected by St. Denis to St. Stephen. Its foundation dates to around the sixth century. Saint-Étienne was one of five Merovingian churches marking the road from Paris to Orleans. The original church was destroyed by the Vikings, but rebuilt in the 11th century. Canons were installed in 1045 to serve the church and pray for the king. It became a parish sometime before 1080, but the parish was absorbed by St. Benedict's between 1195 and 1205. The Chapter existed until 1790. The collegiate church was demolished in 1792.


Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance

The church notably contained a
Black Madonna The term ''Black Madonna'' or ''Black Virgin'' tends to refer to statues or paintings in Western Christendom of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, where both figures are depicted with dark skin. The Jungian scholar, San Begg publ ...
, the ''Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance'' (Our Lady of Good Deliverance), also known as the "Black Madonna of Paris". The statue dates from the 14th century, replacing an 11th-century version. It is tall, and made from painted limestone. The Virgin wears a white veil and dark blue mantle ornamented with
fleur-de-lis The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...
over a red robe. The Royal Confraternity of Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance was established in 1533.
Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...
and
Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (; ; born Ana María Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII. She was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown ...
were members. The shine was visited by many notable French saints, including
Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was an Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622, Vincent was appointed as chaplain to the galleys. ...
and
Francis de Sales Francis de Sales, Congregation of the Oratory, C.O., Order of Minims, O.M. (; ; 21 August 156728 December 1622) was a Savoyard state, Savoyard Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Geneva and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He became n ...
—it was in front of the statue that de Sales recited the '' Memorare'', and made his religious conversion. In 1703, a young seminarian named Claude Poullart des Places gathered a dozen of his companions at Saint-Étienne-des-Grès and consecrated the group to the Virgin; that act was the beginning of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost. Other notable pilgrims to the statue—some before the Revolution, some after—have included
Claude Bernard Claude Bernard (; 12 July 1813 – 10 February 1878) was a French physiologist. I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". He originated the term ''milieu intérieur'' and the associated c ...
,
Jean-Jacques Olier Jean-Jacques Olier, S.S. (20 September 1608 – 2 April 1657) was a French Catholic priest and the founder of the Sulpicians. He also helped to establish the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, which organized the settlement of a new town ca ...
,
John Bosco John Melchior Bosco, Salesians of Don Bosco, SDB (; ; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco or Dom Bosco (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. While working in Tu ...
,
Prosper Guéranger Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (; 4 April 1805 – 30 January 1875) was a French priest and Benedictine monk, who served for nearly 40 years as the abbot of the monastery of Solesmes (which he founded among the ruins of a former priory at Sol ...
, and Madeleine Sophie Barat. When the church was destroyed during the Revolution, all its contents were sold; the statue was saved by a pious rich woman named Madame de Carignan. De Carignan was arrested during the
Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, and she would pray to Our Lady in prison with others who had been arrested for their Catholicism. When de Carignan was freed in 1806, she gave the statue to the Sisters of St. Thomas of Villeneuve, who had been imprisoned with her. The statue is still located in the chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Thomas of Villeneuve in
Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...
. The feast of Our Lady of Good Deliverance is July 18.


References


External links


History of the statue of ''Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etienne des Gres Roman Catholic churches in the 5th arrondissement of Paris Religion and the French Revolution Destroyed churches in France Buildings and structures demolished in 1792 Demolished buildings and structures in Paris