Our Lady of Paris
It may not be well known that the image watching down on the West Front
of the Shrine even from before the opening of the Holy House in 1931 was
that of Our Lady of Paris, not, as one might have expected, of Our Lady of
Walsingham.
It is a flat cut-out image and was intended to be temporary, but was not
replaced until 1966. In that year Fr Colin Stephenson, the then Administrator,
gave in its place a statue of Our Lady Immaculate, to commemorate his Silver
Jubilee of priesthood.
Our Lady of Paris can be seen on the outside wall of what is now called the
Pilgrim Hall, facing the east end of the Shrine church. The original image was
recarved and gilded by Siegfried Pietsch in 1983, and restored again 2019.
The fourteenth-century statue in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris
survived the disastrous fire of 15 April 2019.
September and
October 1931
just before the
Translation
Fr Stephenson’s gift of a
new statue in 1966
gilded and recarved
by Siegfried Pietsch
in 1983
photo in his studio
Refurbished and mounted
on the Pilgrim Hall wall
© Phil Gray