The 19th century Saint Francois Xavier Church
The Church of Saint Francis Xavier of the Foreign Missions is located in the aristocratic 7th district, a stone’s throw from the Hôtel des Invalides. Dedicated to St. Francis-Xavier, its construction was completed in 1873, it opened the following year and was consecrated in 1894.
This historic church houses a remarkable collection of religious art, including exceptional paintings such as The Last Supper by Tintoretto, a master of the 16th-century Venetian school, and The Miracle of Saint Francis Xavier by Benedetto Gennari II, a prominent artist of the 17th-century School of Bologna.
You can also admire several sculptures by renowned 19th-century French artists, including a striking silver Virgin and Child. The church’s grand organ was completely restored in 1992.
One of the side chapels, the Chapel of Saint Joan of Arc, located within the church, houses a statue of Joan of Arc and King Saint Louis.
It was originally called the Chapelle des Morts – Chapel of the Dead in 1920, and was redesigned in memory of the 536 parishioners who died during the First and Second World Wars. Their names were engraved on the chapel walls, beneath two impressive frescoes by the painter Henri Pinta.
The shrine of Sainte Madeleine-Sophie Barat
However, what truly distinguishes Saint Francois Xavier Church is the reliquary sheltering the embalmed body of Saint Madeleine-Sophie Barat. Madeleine-Sophie was superior of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart from 1806 until 1865. The mission of the institution she had founded in 1800 in the nearby Hôtel de Biron (today Musée Rodin) was to educate young girls.
Born into a modest but cultured family, she received her education from her brother, a priest, and later became a nun herself.
Her dedication to the emancipation of young girls through education makes her a pioneer of the modern feminist movement.
She indeed challenged the social norms of the time and campaigned for equal opportunities in learning. Her tireless efforts led to the creation of numerous girls’ schools during the second half of the 19th century.
Madeleine-Sophie Barat was beatified in 1908 and canonised in 1925. The reliquary containing her embalmed body was transferred to Saint Francois Xavier Church on June 19, 2009, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, presided over this important ceremony.
Why choose Saint Francois Xavier Church to shelters her shrine?
Madeleine-Sophie died in 1885 and was initially buried in Charenton-le-Pont, in the east of Paris, where she spent her final years.
Her remains were exhumed in 1893, when she was considered for canonisation, and to everyone’s surprise, her body was found to be incorrupt.
However, following a 1904 law prohibiting religious congregations from teaching, the nuns of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart left the Hôtel de Biron and settled in Jette, Belgium, taking with them the coffin of the founder of their order.
During numerous exhumations, including one in 1908 for her beatification, her body was consistently found to be incorrupt.
A plaster cast of her face and a silver cast of her hands were made in 1909, and her remains were placed in the current reliquary.
These original casts were stolen in 1993 but were only recovered three years later!
Madeleine-Sophie Barat was canonised in 1925, and in 1934, the nuns built a chapel in her honour in Jette.
However, in 1982, most of the nuns left the convent. The reliquary was thus transferred to Brussels in 1983 when demolition work blocked access to the chapel.
In 2009, 144 years after her death, the reliquary was transferred to Saint Francois Xavier Church, as it stood a stone’s throw from the Hôtel de Biron – Rodin Museum) the former seat and residence of the Congrégation des Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur.
Saint Francois Xavier Church is one of the 25 Paris churches I have selected for you, lesser-known, yet equally fascinating!
Directions: 7th district – 12 Place du President Mithouard
Metro: Saint-Francois-Xavier on Line 13
Coordinates: Lat 48.850897 – Long 2.313568
