Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne D'Enghien - History

History

Beginning in 1925, the Catholic Church initiated a program called the Chantiers du Cardinal, through which it would build churches in undesirable areas and Christianize the red-light districts around Paris. Most of these churches were built of cement and brick. In 1930, cardinal Jean Verdier decided to take the program even further, decreeing that it would be necessary, over the next few years, to construct a hundred churches for the diocese. The success of Verdier's plan was total; in 1933 the sixtieth construction site was inaugurated, and in 1934 alone seventeen more were opened. In total, 102 churches, including Notre-Dame-des-Missions, were built around Paris before 1940, when the program finished.

The construction of the church was an outgrowth of an exhibit which had been put together for a 1931 colonial exhibition in the Bois de Vincennes. The vault of the structure was constructed as a chapel for Catholic missions expressly for the exhibit, and was dismantled at its end; it was then reconstructed using more durable materials in 1933 in Épinay-sur-Seine; funds for the building's construction were raised through a national subscription spearheaded by Marshal Hubert Lyautey. The church received its unusual double name from its origins and from the site of its construction; as the colonial exhibition was designed to glorify the evangelization of French colonies by missionaries, it was decided to dedicate the structure to Our Lady of the Missions. The rest of the name refers to the northwestern district of Épinay-sur-Seine, the so-called "Swan of Enghien", in which the church was built. The land upon which it sits was donated by Firmin-Dodot.