Marseille’s famed ‘Good Mother’ will shine again atop city’s cathedral

PARIS (OSV News) — One year after the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris, Marseille’s Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde is preparing to celebrate, on Dec. 7, the completion of restoration work on the iconic gilded copper statue of the Virgin Mary that crowns it.

The milestone of unveiling Marseille’s “Bonne Mère” (“Good Mother”) will be celebrated with a solemn Mass and procession on the eve of the Dec. 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The construction that lasted decades started in 1853. Built in a Roman-Byzantine style, the basilica overlooks France’s second largest city, and the Mediterranean Sea, from a height of almost 500 feet. The statue is 36 feet high.

For Father Olivier Spinoza, longtime rector of the basilica, Marseille’s iconic church is “a place that welcomes everyone, believers and nonbelievers alike.” 

“You have a magnificent 360-degree view from up there,” he told OSV News. “The people here are very proud to show their basilica to visitors.”

The expression “Bonne Mère” came from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a congregation founded after the French Revolution. “They spoke a lot about the Virgin Mary as ‘our Good Mother’ in their preaching,” Father Spinoza explained. It was their founder, St. Eugène de Mazenod, who, having become bishop of Marseille, laid the first stone of the basilica on the site of a former medieval chapel.

The “Bonne Mère” is especially known for being the protector of sailors and fishermen, and, according to the rector, for all those who traveled to reach Marseille. 

Votive offerings — some more than 200 years old — such as little model boats hang from the ceiling and maritime paintings adorn the walls of the basilica. Some are signs of gratitude of sailors that reached the port safely in the 19th century, some are from migrants that came not long ago and were rescued at Marseille’s shores. 

“Marseille is a city where, over the centuries, people from all over the world have settled,” he said. 

“Here, Catholics come to entrust to the Lord, through the intercession of his Mother, everything that is essential in their lives,” Father Spinoza continued. “But anyone can go up to Notre Dame to rest and light a candle, whatever their path and their faith. Many Muslim women come here, as well as people who are searching. ‘God, I don’t know if you exist,’ they say. ‘But the Bonne Mère is here!'”

In recent years, the statue of the Virgin Mary had been tarnished by pollution, sea air and the mistral — a strong and cold north wind blowing in the area. It had not been restored since 1989, and its overall condition was deteriorating. In May 2024, Marseille’s archbishop, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, who has since become president of the French bishops’ conference, launched an appeal for donations to finance its restoration. 

“Unlike many churches that belong to the municipality, the basilica belongs to the diocese,” Father Spinoza explained. 

The project was estimated at $3.2 million and involved the application of nearly 30,000 new gold leaves to the statue. A crowdfunding campaign was launched and “in a few months, the budget was reached and even exceeded,” Father Spinoza said. “Many people participated, sometimes in very modest ways.”

Local businesses contributed, like the “Olympique de Marseille,” the city’s soccer club, and local authorities, including the city hall. 

“Their subsidies were intended for workplace safety,” Father Spinoza explained. “In accordance with the 1905 law separating church and state, public subsidies do not finance worship itself.” 

Notre Dame “is the symbol of our city, its protector, a heritage and cultural gem that is renowned throughout the world and welcomes around 2.3 million visitors every year,” Marseille’s Mayor Benoît Payan said on Jan. 10. “I am very proud that the city is participating in its restoration.”

Begun in February 2025, the work took 10 months to complete. Today, the statue shines brightly, and its copper has been treated with anti-corrosion protection, which should make the new gilding more resistant over time.

To celebrate the milestone, a solemn Mass will be celebrated on the afternoon of Dec. 7, at the foot of the hill, in the medieval abbey of Saint-Victor. “It was there that in 1214, a man named Pierre asked his bishop to build a small chapel and a hermitage so that he could live there, pray, and cultivate vines and olive trees,” Father Spinoza recounted. “This shows how a simple life can bear fruit according to God.”
    
After Mass,a large procession led by Cardinal Aveline will leave the basilica. “We always say ‘go up to the Bonne-Mère,'” Father Spinoza explained. “‘Going up’ to her is important at decisive moments in life, even if you are not very religious,” he said, explaining big crowds are expected to march in the procession.  

Once the crowd gathers at the basilica at the top of the hill, Cardinal Aveline will lead a prayer of thanksgiving, followed by a grand sound and light show around the restored statue.

The manifestation of devotion to the Good Mother could bring some comfort to the residents of Marseille, who on Nov. 22 gathered to commemorate 20-year-old Mehdi Kessaci, who was shot dead on Nov. 13 in the city center by drug traffickers. He was the brother of a young activist involved in the fight against drug trafficking.

The tragedy shook the city, and it was also the Bonne Mère that Cardinal Aveline invoked on this occasion. “With all those who pray in the shadows, and I know there are many in Marseille,” he said in a statement on Nov. 22, “I raise my eyes to the Virgin of the Guard, and I entrust to her all the inhabitants of our city, especially the young, asking her to strengthen in all of us the courage of hope, so that life may triumph over death and indifference may never stifle indignation.”

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