30 Apr

2023

A Church of the Martyrs, Paris

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I have aleady written of the sombre, little-known funerary chapels of Paris. They commemorate the victims of political crimes and tragic accidents between 1789 and 1896. To these I must add Notre-Dame-des-Otages, dedicated to the memory of the hostages massacred by the Communards (the Commune was a proto-Communist movement) in 1871. Unlike the other chapels, however, the current church was built in the twentieth century and completed in 1938. It later became a fully functioning parish church.

Notre-Dame-des-Otages is situated in the Belleville district, far from the Parisian centers of business and tourism. Traditionally a poor area, I am told it has recently been “enjoying” gentrification. The church is located in the Rue Haxo, where most of the executions took place on May 26, 1871. The current structure replced a series of prior chapels dating back to 1889.

Located on a nondescript street, the facade does not make a very strong impression. The interior is one of the few attempts to employ the Art Deco style in ecclesiastical architecture. Although pleasant and interesting, I regret to say it reminded me somewhat of a subway station. An inscription encircles the main altar:

Sanguis Martyrum Semen Christianorum

This, and references on two plaques commemorating the dead of the wo world wars, are strangely enough the only allusions I could find to the rather unusual dedication of this church.

(Above and below) Notre-Dame-des-Otages.
The Art Deco interior would delight Matthew Alderman (of “other modern” fame ). The architecture and decoration are reminiscent to a visitor from New York of the slightly older and significantly larger church of St. Catherine of Siena there.
The sanctuary – with a much more recent “Novus Ordo” altar in the middle. Strangely, the inscription surrounding the altar was the only explicit reference to the reason for the church’s unusual dedication I could find in the decorative scheme.

I gather the commemoration of these martyrs later became somewhat of a political embarrassment for the Church. After all, hadn’t thousands of Communards been massacred by the government in crushing their uprising? And aren’t communists some of the best Christians, as Dorothy Day and later Pope Francis have claimed? In any case it was only in this year 2023 that five of the martyrs were beatified, on Saturday, April 22nd in the church of Saint Sulpice (which is currently functioning as the Cathedral of Paris). Henri Planchat, Ladislas Radigue, Polycarpe Tuffier, Marcellin Rouchouze et Frézial Tardieu will be commemorated on May 26. But there were many more martyrs under the Commune between May 24 and 27 in 1871 – the most prominent of all being Archbishop Georges Darboy of Paris. He had been a resolute opponent of Ultramontanism – does this still count against him?

On Sunday, April 23, a procession before solemn vespers, part of the ceremonies celebrating the transfer of relics of the newly beatified to Notre-Dame-des-Otages.
(Above and below) the relics of the martyrs revered by the faithful. A more permanent chapel within the Church will be constructed later to house them.
Published in Essays, Photos