Church of Our Lady of the Assumption (Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo)
In Pointe-Noire, a large port city of the Republic of the Congo, the main Marian church is Our Lady of the Assumption, raised between 1952 and 1953 and blessed by Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre. For more than twenty years it was the de facto cathedral of the city, until in 1975 the episcopal seat passed to the church of St. Peter the Apostle, today the archbishop cathedral. Directed towards the sea on a high ground, it is, after the Basilica of Santa Ana, one of the churches with the greatest capacity in the country, and testimony of Marian devotion on Congolese lands.
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- The first stone of Our Lady of the Assumption was placed on April 27, 1952, and the temple was blessed on December 20, 1953 by Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre, then apostolic vicar of the region.
- The project is the work of the architect Jules Alazard: a Latin cross plant in modern style, sixty meters in length and twenty in width, with a bell tower of thirty-three meters, all in reinforced concrete and facing the sea.
- His three bells were blessed in October 1955 and received the names of Magdalena, Odila and Bernadette, the last of nine hundred and fifty kilos.
- From 1953 to 1975 he played the role of the city's cathedral, in the administrative district of Plateau, until the episcopal seat was moved to the first Congolese bishop.
- The official cathedral of the Archdiocese is today the church of St. Peter the Apostle, whose mission the Espirians founded in 1948 and which passed to the Salesians in 1960, becoming a cathedral in 1975 with the consecration of Godefroy Emile Mpwati.
- The headquarters of Pointe-Noire, erected as a diocese on September 14, 1955 by Pius XII, was elevated to the metropolitan archdiocese on May 30, 2020, with the Dioceses of Dolisie and Nkayi as suffraneas.
Our Lady of the Assumption
In Pointe-Noire, the church of Our Lady of the Assumption (1952- 1953), blessed by Monsignor Lefebvre and the work of architect Jules Alazard, is the main Marian temple and was a city cathedral until 1975. Today the archbishopric seat resides in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, entrusted to the Salesians.
"Our Lady of the Assumption, raised to heaven in body and soul, also raises our prayers and keeps the faithful from these coasts of the Congo.
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