The chief architect of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris shared in an interview with EWTN that he felt Our Lady guided the restoration of the 861-year-old cathedral, following the fire that devastated the building in April 2019.
In an interview with Colm Flynn on “EWTN News In Depth,” architect Philippe Villeneuve said he was a believer with a “particular devotion to Mary.”
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When asked if he was “a man of faith,” Villeneuve explained that he had kept it private during the reconstruction, but is now ready to reveal it.
“I went five years without saying anything about it because I am an official in a secular republic and therefore I couldn’t say something like that,” Villeneuve told Flynn. “But now I have to reveal that it is.”
“I have a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary and, at the risk of sounding totally crazy—or like Joan of Arc—I never stopped feeling the support that came from up there,” he said.
The architect shared that without Mary’s guidance, he did not believe the restoration of Notre Dame de Paris would have been possible.
Rebuilding Notre Dame was no easy task. A team of more than 2,000 people worked on the restoration, which cost 800 million euros (about $840 million). The original building had taken almost 200 years to be built, but Villeneuve only had five years to restore it.
“I don’t think this project would have been possible any other way, and I think that’s what gave me the strength and determination to keep going because I knew I had support from up there,” Villeneuve said.
The fire had destroyed the cathedral’s roof, spire, and three sections of the vault, but the organ, paintings, stained glass, and furniture were intact.
Under pressure from the French government and 340,000 private donors around the world, Villeneuve had to ensure that original techniques and materials were used as much as possible.
“It was a tremendous amount of work,” he continued. “Now I realize it when I see where we come from. “I’m really surprised by the beauty, surprised by the work, by the quality of the work.”
Villeneuve has always had a great love for its historic cathedral.
“Since I was little I have been madly in love with Notre Dame de Paris,” he said. “When I was a child, it was inside the cathedral where I felt good.”
Villeneuve shared that he had made a model of the cathedral when he was 16 years old.
“It captivated me and moved me,” he said. “And I didn’t know, when I was a kid and I was building the cathedral out of cardboard and paper, that one day I would be working on the real cathedral.”
The doors of the newly restored cathedral officially reopened to the public on Saturday evening, December 7, just over five years after a fire devastated the roof, frame and spire of the iconic structure. More than 1,500 people attended the opening ceremony, including some 40 world leaders such as US President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as 170 bishops. The Archbishop of Paris, Bishop Laurent Ulrich, celebrated the first Mass and consecrated the altar on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
“When I placed the last stone of the vault of the north transept, I went back to bygone times,” recalls the architect. “And I saw myself as a child building this vault with paper and cardboard.”
The cathedral has a deeper spiritual meaning, not only for its architect, but for everyone in France and even around the world.
Bishop Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector and archpriest of Notre Dame Cathedral, called the building “the soul of France.”
“Because this cathedral is something of the soul of France, the history of our country is intimately linked to the history of the cathedral,” Bishop Dumas told Flynn.
But its “influence extends far beyond France,” said the rector.
“The cathedral does not belong to Parisians, nor to Catholics, nor to the French, but is the common good of all humanity,” continued Bishop Dumas. “And its stones speak of God because they have been animated by prayer for more than 800 years.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Kate Quinones
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a member of College Fix. He has publications in the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register and CatholicVote. He graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.