By Fidelma Cook, in France. 

As dawn broke over the French capital, Parisians woke to a grey, glowering sky and the sickening knowledge that their very heart had been ripped out.

It was fitting that the day should begin so. For on opening shutters there was also the acrid, throat catching smell of smoke hanging trapped by the cloud line.

Smoke arising from the burning of timbers that had come from 13000 oak trees, already four hundred years old when cut down between 1160 and 1170 to form the original part of the roof of Our Lady of Paris.

The night before, in just a few hours, the awesome might, beauty and history of Notre Dame, had seemed consumed by fire and lost forever.

For anyone watching, on the spot, or on their television, from the moment the spire collapsed into the nave; as seemingly unstoppable flames roared along the roof and into the night sky; it was all over.

But today, as photographs and video emerge of the interior, hope has been renewed.
The stone carapace wrapped around the medieval heart had done its work, sheltering most of the treasures to allow the pompiers to spirit them out to safety.

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The exterior gargoyles, the statues, the pietas, the priceless carvings overlapping the walls of the nave before they soar pure and unadorned into the roof, have all defied the fire’s hunger.

And hanging above the altar, unmarked, untouched, as its roof caved in – the cross. 

As if lit from inside, the gold symbol of Christianity shone out, hovering above the destruction.

A visibly moved President Macron gazed at it as if mesmerised before vowing that the greatest talents would be called upon to rebuild the Cathedral because: ‘that’s what the French are waiting for, that’s what our history deserves, because it’s our deepest destiny.’

Multi millions have already been pledged.

It is impossible to over-estimate what Notre Dame means to the French. 

A deeply determined secular society separating church and state by strict laws, the country is nominally Catholic but practising numbers dwindle year by year. 

Home to the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe it often hides its past, seeking a homogenous legal blend where all visible signals of worship are barred.

But the French are also, despite their revolutionary history, locked in a worship of ‘patrimoine’…like ‘terroir’ when discussing wine, it is hard to define, for it means the very soul of the land – heritage, culture and provenance.

Invaded, conquered, assimilating the best of all those who sought to put their stamp on it, France has been the crucible of Western philosophy and confusion.

Notre Dame itself is a palimpsest of both the eras and numerous, often botched, attempts to keep it whole.

The first stone was laid in 1163 in the presence of King Louis V11 Le Jeune and Pope Alexander 111.

But its first phase lasted almost 200 years.

In 1431 Henry V1, King of England was also crowned King of France there amid the Hundred Years War. 

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Earlier that year the 19-year-old Jeanne d’Arc was burned at the stake. In 1456 she was found innocent of all crimes and declared a martyr.

In 1909 she was beatified in Notre Dame by Pope Pious X and made a saint 11 years later.

It has taken time though for the French to give what they hold in their grasp to a wider world. Pride and arrogance so often vie with each other.

For all the outpourings of grief today, Notre Dame has suffered through the centuries from neglect.

In the 16th century tombs and stained-glass windows were destroyed in the name of modernization or vandalized because of claims of idolatry.

During the Revolution the church was annexed as a food and wine store. Many of the statutes had their heads smashed and by the turn of the 19th century its time seemed over.

But Napoleon, determined to have a coronation worthy of his self-proclaimed status, saved it from ruin and was crowned Emperor there in 1804.

And so, the restoration began and continued – remarkably untouched by either of the World Wars.

General de Gaulle returned to the cathedral for a thanksgiving Mass in 1944 as snipers fired outside. He marched through unmoved.

Restoration had begun again when the fire broke out. For many years it has been piecemeal - stone cracking; gargoyles aided by hideous, semi-hidden plastic pipes; and pleas going unheeded to successive governments who reluctantly gave far less than pleaded for.

Yet, some 14 million visitors a year from all over the world enter Notre Dame. Say France to foreigners and the Eifel Tower and Notre Dame would flash before their eyes.

Yes, there are those drawn by Victor Hugo’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ but most are drawn because for them its fanciful resting on the Ile de la Cite is the symbol of all that is French.

As the fire raged it was the Parisians who stood in silent horror watching the flames. Some knelt and sang hymns, kneeling across the Seine and looking towards their church.

The mood was sombre, respectful, desolate. It was also bewildered for it seems Paris has suffered so much in the last few years.

Today, the tourists are back. Unable to enter they snap with their iPhones and take selfies and the chatter and hum of Parisian tourist life is back again.

It seems Paris has no need to fear that this semi-destroyed jewel in the crown will destroy its vital tourist industry.

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For still they come and the strangely stoic remaining facades of Our Lady, look on, as they have done through all the centuries.

This week is one of the holiest and most sombre in the Catholic calendar. Good Friday, all goes silent and dark in the churches as the hour moves towards Christ’s crucifixion.

Easter Saturday/Sunday sees the Resurrection and light once more fills the churches.
It would have been an ancient and moving ceremony attended by hundreds in Notre Dame.

That Mass is not possible now in the embers but State, Church and the People have made one thing clear:

Notre Dame will live again. As one Parisian tweeted: I saw Notre Dame this morning. She is only wounded. She will survive.