Église de Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet
History until 1977
The church was first built in the 13th century and was reconstructed between 1656 and 1763.
In 1612, Adrien Bourdoise founded a seminary at Saint-Nicolas
In the late 17th century, noted harpsichordist Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy (1633–1694) served as titular organist of the church.
In the 19th century the adjacent Mutualité site was occupied by a seminary. There, Ernest Renan studied under the direction of the Abbé Dupanloup, who attained celebrity in 1838 when he reconciled the notoriously amoral diplomat Talleyrand, who had received the minor orders at Saint-Nicholas, to the church on his death-bed. (Dupanloup subsequently became Bishop of Orléans and a member of the Académie française).
Since 1905, the city of Paris, following the Law on the separation of Church and State, claims ownership of the church but grants the Roman Catholic Church a free usage right.
1977 occupation and consequences
In 1977, eleven years before the Ecône Consecrations, members of the Society of St. Pius X led by François Ducaud-Bourget expelled the parish priest and his assistants and occupied the church.
Shortly afterwards, the city of Paris gave an eviction order. In 1978, the Court of Cassation confirmed that the occupation was illegal but the order of eviction was never implemented.[3] On 20 February 1987, the Conseil d'État ruled that the disturbance to public order resulting from an expulsion would be higher than that resulting from the illegal occupation.
In 1993, the SSPX members, led by Philippe Laguérie, unsuccessfully attempted to occupy another church in Paris, St-Germain l'Auxerrois.
On 22 June 2002, the municipal council of Paris passed a resolution that the Society of St Pius X should be expelled from the church, against the wishes of the socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who considered it an internal matter of the Catholic Church, remarking that the Archbishop of Paris had not requested that the Society be expelled.
Current situation
It is now the Society's only church in the city of Paris itself (others exist in the Île de France) and although it is not their official French headquarters it is seen as their de facto national centre.
On Sundays, Mass is celebrated in the church at 08.00, 09.00, and 10.30, 12.15 and 18.30 .
Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet
http://www.wikiwand.com/fr/%C3%89glise_Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet {in French}
