30 Years of Tradition at St. Nicolas

(The thirtieth anniversary of the SSPX at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet is one of many topics that I have not covered sufficiently on this blog. I will probably be returning to all sorts of topics, out of chronological order, to attempt to do them justice. But for now, I will write a little bit about this event at St. Nicolas, at which I was privileged to be present.)

At the banquet held in celebration of the anniversary, I sat next to an elderly woman who had lived in Paris all her life. She was there when one of the only places in Paris with the Latin Mass was the Salle Wagram. She went there every Sunday for Mass... One Sunday, she showed up at the usual hour only to discover that there were no clerics to be found! She was told that there wouldn't be Mass at the Salle Wagram that day because they were gone, taking a church in the fifth district of Paris! That was February 27, 1977.
Several members of the MJCF (an association of French Catholic youth) stayed in the church all night to help stake their claim. An all-night prayer vigil was held (with one woman in particular staying there, praying the entire night through!). The local clergy held onto the sacristy even after the SSPX had taken the church itself, causing some inconvenience. However, thanks to the fact that the French government officially owns all church buildings (not actually a good thing at all, but it turned out favorably in this circumstance), the local Novus Ordo clergy did not have a complete say in the matter and the entirety of the building was not long in being turned over to the SSPX. I don't know all the details, but I believe that is the skeleton of the story.

Once the church was obtained, there was a corps of valiant souls who gave their time, money, prayers, and effort to establish Tradition where it ought to have always stayed. Monsignor Ducaud-Bourget, a stalwart soldier in the war for the Faith of All Time, was particularly instrumental in this movement.

Since then, the parish has flourished and grown, as souls desperate for the truth flock to it. To sum up the past thirty years at St. Nicolas in numbers (although this only BARELY scratches the surface of how much has been accomplished), I present you with these statistics...

IN THE PAST THIRTY YEARS:
Baptisms: 3393, being 113 per year, of which 461 have been adult baptisms (and one of those adult baptisms is now a priest in the SSPX!)
Weddings: 592, being 20 per year
Private Communions: 1494, being 50 per year (I think this refers to FIRST Communions)
Solemn Communions: 1474, being 49 per year
Confirmations: 4125, being 137 per year
Ordination: 1 (AT St. Nicolas - more than one from the parish, I'm sure)
Extreme Unctions: 207 since 2000 (the numbers for this are very incomplete)
Annual Hours of Guard (this meaning that there is a priest physically present in the office, at the faithful's disposal): 2754, being 54 per week (!)
Hours of Confession during Holy Week: more than 200
Faithful per Sunday (between November and May): about 3500
The church seats: 1200
Number of communions, monthly: 15,000
Age of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet: 100 years; it was created in 1907 by the curé Fr. Lenert
1937: the year the church was consecrated

~ ~ ~

Tout ce qui est catholique est notre.
-Louis Veuillot

All that is Catholic is ours.

This is the quote below the header on the parish monthly bulletin at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet. Perfectly apropos for all Traditionalists, it is particularly so for this courageous group who reclaimed a house of God for the practice of the True Faith, and have held onto it in ever-growing numbers for three decades.

But for the grace of God, there go we. The glory is His!
DEO GRATIAS for this small but consistent battle for the Mass instituted by Jesus Christ!!

Long live Christ the King!