Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bonne Délivrance

The Black Madonna of Paris has been venerated for nearly a millennium, though the statue and her devotees have moved several times. The current chapel represents the endpoint of a journey from medieval Paris through Revolutionary danger to this quiet suburban refuge.

In the eleventh century, a chapel at the church of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève became known for a Black Madonna who granted safe deliveries to pregnant women. The devotion grew. The Royal Confraternity of Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance was established in 1533; by its height it counted twelve thousand members including French royalty.

The French Revolution destroyed Saint-Étienne-des-Grès. But before the church fell, Madame de Carignan Saint Maurice purchased the statue and hid it, saving it from destruction. In 1806, she gave it to the Sisters of Saint Thomas of Villeneuve, who had themselves survived the Revolution's dispersal.

The Sisters moved to Neuilly in 1908, bringing the Madonna with them. The chapel was completed in 1910, blessed by Archbishop Amette of Paris. For over a century, it has served as the permanent home of this ancient devotion.