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June 6, 1944. Off the Normandy coast, the tide is out and the sand stretches as far as the eye can see. It’s barely six o’clock in the morning and the sun rises timidly over the cliffs.
In the space of a few hours, some 7,000 ships landed on the beaches of Normandy’s Côte de Nacre: “Utah” and “Omaha” for the American troops; “Gold,” “Juno,” and “Sword” for the British and Canadians. It was a key moment of the Second World War.
Although the operation was a success and the German coastal defenses were defeated, a violent battle ensued, Operation Overlord. The operation ended on August 30 after numerous deadly Allied bombardments aimed at destroying German communications routes.
Agonizing Normandy bore the scars of war. On September 13, 1944, the editorial of the local newspaper, Le Havre-Matin, declared to the Allies who had come to liberate the city: “We awaited you in joy, we welcome you in mourning.”
Beneath the rubble of a region that would need to be rebuilt, a few miracles nonetheless brought joy to a battered population. Several churches, convents, and abbeys had largely been spared, along with the religious and numerous refugees who had sought protection therein.
Here are some treasures of religious heritage that survived relatively unscathed.
1
BASILICA of SAINT GERVAIS IN AVRANCHES
Several towns in the Cotentin region were pounded by bombs dropped by the American Air Force to block the path of German troops to the D-Day beaches. Avranches was not spared: machine-gun fire rained down on the town’s rooftops, razing them to the ground as it went. While the town center and train station area were completely destroyed, the Basilica of Saint Gervais held firm. The shock waves caused by the explosions stopped the church’s clock at 3:07 pm.
2
THE TOWN OF BAYEUX
Located just a few miles from the D-Day beaches, Bayeux is one of the few towns on the Normandy coast to have been spared. The town owes its miraculous preservation to Dom Aubourg, chaplain to the community of Sisters of Charity in Saint-Vigor-le-Grand, a village bordering Bayeux.
On the night of June 6-7, 1944, when he heard the Germans leaving their position, Dom Aubourg risked his life to ask the British to spare the town. The operation was a success, and Bayeux escaped unscathed.
3
Women’s Abby of CAEN
While the city was severely destroyed by bombardment, Caen’s Abbey of the Trinity was still standing amidst the ashes and rubble when the Canadians liberated the city. Also known as the Women’s Abbey, the building had housed the Saint Louis hospital since 1914. The former monastery of Benedictine nuns was relatively unscathed during the war and the Battle of Caen, with civilians taking refuge in the crypt beneath the church apse.
4
Men’s Abby of CAEN
By mid-July 1944, over 8,000 civilians had taken refuge in the former conventual buildings of the Men’s Abbey, the Saint-Etienne abbey church and the school, which had been converted into medical refuges. To signal their presence to the American bomber squadrons that had come to chase the Germans out of the city, civilians marked huge red crosses on the roofs of the buildings, some of them made from the bloody sheets of the operating rooms. Thus preserved from the bombardments, the former Men’s Abbey became Caen’s Town Hall in 1965.
5
NOTRE-DAME DE COUTANCE CATHEDRAL
Miraculously spared by the bombardments of June 1944, only the south portal and roofs were damaged by incendiary bombs that melted the lead dome of the cathedral’s lantern tower.
6
THE CHURCH OF THE TRINITY IN FALAISE
In Falaise, the bell tower of the Church of the Trinity collapsed under the bombardments, taking the choir vault with it. However, the vault of the nave, where civilians had taken refuge, miraculously held firm. Under the tremors of the bombardments, a second “miracle” illuminated the memory of Falaisians: During the assault, as bombs rained down on the town, a young woman gave birth to a son.
7
LISIEUX BASILICA AND CARMELITE CONVENT
On the evening of June 6, 1944, the first bombs fell on the town, which caught fire all the way to the railway station, sparing the Carmelite monastery and Les Buissonnets. Over the following days, hundreds of bombers battered the town, leaving only ruins.
Taking refuge in the crypt of the basilica of Lisieux, religious and lay people implored the intercession of little Thérèse around her gilded reliquary, which the Carmelite nuns had taken with them when they left their convent. Lisieux burned, but the Carmelite convent and basilica were miraculously spared.
And today we celebrate...