Closed since 2021 for renovation work, the Sainte Jeanne d’Arc church in Margny-lès-Compiègne reopens to the public and for worship. Monseigneur Jacques Benoit-Gonnin, bishop of Beauvais, Noyon and Senlis, presided over the mass celebrating the reopening of the church, Saturday June 15.
The day before, Friday June 14 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m., the relics of Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, were offered for veneration. The bishop installed them in the new blessed altar during mass.
2021-2026: renovation
With a cost of 2.3 million euros, the church underwent several phases of renovation:
- The first concerned the replacement of the heating (new boiler), from February 2021 to May 2021).
- The second concerned the north canopy (October 2021 to November 2023) followed by the south canopy (November 2023-April 2024, fourth phase).
- The third phase concerned the interior design (September 2022 to June 2024). Reconstruction of the choir, the sacristy, creation of a chapel, partitioning of rooms, acquisition of new liturgical furniture (benches, altar, tabernacle, ambo).
- The last phase is not over. It concerns the exterior of the church, with the waterproofing and the facades, started in September 2022, with a planned end of the work in December 2026.
The diocese of Beauvais financed €1,742,700, thanks to collections from diocesan projects. The parish contributes 200,000 euros. The sponsorship represents €37,300. Thanks to its registration as a historic monument in 2016 by Jean-Lucien Guenoun, the work benefited from a subsidy of €320,000.
1910-1960 : la construction
The laying of the first stone dates back to 1911. During the Johannine celebrations of May 1910, the Bishop of Beauvais, Monseigneur Célestin Douais, publicly requested a church in Margny-les-Compiègne, dedicated to Blessed Joan of Arc. After her beatification in 1909.
On the land offered by Father Hector Langlois, parish priest of Margny-les-Compiègne, Monsignor Douais blessed the first stone of the sanctuary on Monday June 5, 1911.
On July 7, 1912, the anniversary of the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc by Pope Calixtus III, the Bishop of Beauvais celebrated mass in the newly built nave. The following year, the vault was completed. Then the hanging of a work by the Compiégnois painter Marie-Henri Philippot.
The work will be completed in May 1960.
