VIDEO - Thousands in Paris, Join Procession as the Miracle Statue of Our Lady that Survived the Fire Returns to Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame de Paris returns to Notre Dame cathedral with thousands of Parisians in procession.

A Virgin of Paris statue replica was carried during a Marian candlelit procession through the streets of Paris on November 15, 2024. The original, was transported on a truck back to Notre Dame Cathedral. The statue was kept at the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois Church near the Louvre for five years since Notre Le Figaro confirmed.
The Virgin of Paris, stands 6 feet high and sculpted in white stone, the copy of the original statue was solemnly walked to the cathedral as the original was transported by a special truck.
From 1855 — the first major restoration of the cathedral in the 19th century — it was standing at the foot of the southeast pillar of the transept crossing, a position that earned the statue the name Virgin of the Pillar.

When the fire broke out in April 2019, the statue was found soaked by water from the firefighter units and surrounded by ashes, next to pieces of fallen timber, and stone rubble from the collapsed transept vault. But the surface was intact. The following October, it was moved to Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, where Notre Dame’s liturgical activities had been transferred.

As the long-anticipated Marian procession was about to start, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris welcomed the crowd on the square in front of the church, along with the chaplains of Notre Dame, and knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, dressed in their white capes.

Transporting the real statue of the Virgin on foot was out of the question for security reasons. Instead, everyone was able to witness her departure by truck, before setting off, with candles and singing, behind a replica, illuminated and decorated with white flowers. The procession followed the banks of the Seine River toward the Île de la Cité, one of two Parisian islands and home to Notre Dame Cathedral.
Arriving in front of the cathedral at around 7 p.m., the pilgrims were greeted by the singing of the Maîtrise Notre Dame, the cathedral’s choir, that has been traveling the world for the last five years. The archbishop blessed the original statue, the crate carrying it having been opened so that it could be seen. 
At the same time, the “Pèlerinage des Pierres Vivantes,” or “Pilgrimage of the Living Stones” — a youth association of the Archdiocese of Paris — led a prayer vigil in front of the cathedral.
Father Gaëtan de Bodard, new chaplain of the iconic Paris’ fire brigade that saved Notre Dame — and successor to Father Jean-Marc Fournier, who courageously ran into the burning cathedral to first preserve the Blessed Sacrament, bless the burning church and then save the crown of thorns — said that Notre Dame today is already a witness to new miracles of conversion.
“I personally know one of the firefighters who intervened that evening at Notre Dame and who rediscovered his faith at that moment,” Father de Bodard told OSV News. “He had turned away from his faith in the face of all the suffering, pain, deprivation, loneliness, blood and wounds he saw. But on the night of the fire, he was moved to see the whole city of Paris at a standstill, and people praying on their knees in the streets,” the new chaplain of Paris’ firefighters unit said.
Source: OSV News and Notre Dame de Paris Website with Video above