Commotion in the municipality of Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor). During Mass on Monday, September 8, a statue of the Virgin Mary was set on fire in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours. Similar incidents had already occurred four years ago, on September 14, 2025.
The incident took place on Monday evening, during the 6 p.m. Mass: “Yesterday evening, during the 6 p.m. Mass, on the feast day of the Nativity of Mary, our basilica was once again the victim of an act of vandalism: the statue of the Virgin and Child, our patron saint Notre-Dame de Bonsecours, was set on fire. This was clearly a deliberate act, as there is no heat source near the statue. For what purpose? I am outraged and very angry…”, explains a member of the Friends of the Basilica Organ Association in a message on Facebook.
Much of the clothing worn by the Virgin and her child was destroyed by the flames. The gendarmerie was called in immediately and sent forensic experts from Saint-Brieuc to secure fingerprints and DNA traces that could help identify the arsonists. Witnesses were interviewed and a neighbourhood survey was conducted. ‘The investigation is still ongoing,’ said the gendarmerie.
Mona Braz, president of the association ‘Les Amis du Patrimoine de Guingamp’ (Friends of Guingamp’s Cultural Heritage), expressed her dismay at this act of vandalism: “We would like to remind everyone that the attachment to Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours extends far beyond the faithful and practising believers: together with the black Madonna in the north portal, she is one of the “residents” of Guingamp. She is part of our immediate environment and local cultural heritage. It is therefore painful to see the destruction of garments whose embroidery required thousands of hours of work,” she lamented. Most of the garments worn by the Virgin and her child were burned in the flames. […]
She wonders about the motives behind this criminal act: ‘Apart from justified outrage and equally justified anger, it is, to put it bluntly, difficult not to see this as either primitive anti-Christianity or Christianophobia, or even a sign that faith is definitely no longer in vogue; or worse still, confirmation that respect for religious heritage and religious works of art has been lost.’
Previously, the clothes of the Virgin Mary and her child had been set on fire. The parish and the municipal authorities of Guingamp had filed a complaint. The gendarmerie had launched an investigation and even published a call for witnesses. On October 28, 2015, the Notre-Dame de Bon Secours church had already been vandalised by arson.
Every church in France needs security cameras.