My Journey

Église Notre-Dame-des-Miracles, Orléans

The Marian church of Orléans. Its medieval belfry survives from the old church of Saint-Paul; the rest was rebuilt after the bombardment of 1940. It keeps the image of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles, the focus of the city's oldest continuous devotion, and it belongs in a Johannine visit as the Marian half of the story.

Location
Orléans, France 47.8994° N · 1.9022° E
Type
Church A surviving late medieval stone belfry from the church of Saint-Paul, attached to a nave and apse rebuilt in the twentieth century after the bombardment of 1940
Dedication
Our Lady, under the title of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles
Why Go

The Marian Half of Orléans

A Joan pilgrimage in Orléans that only visits the cathedral gets the public half of 1429 and misses the devotional half. Orléans prayed to Our Lady under this title before the siege, during it and after it, and it still does. The church is not beautiful in the way Sainte-Croix is, and that is part of its usefulness: it is a working parish holding an old devotion in a building the twentieth century gave it.

A Devotion That Outlived Its Church

The devotion to Our Lady of Miracles at Orléans is long attested and was the city's principal Marian devotion through the Middle Ages and after. It was a devotion of the whole town rather than of one chapel, and it was to Our Lady that Orléans attributed its deliverance in 1429 as much as to any soldier. Joan's own piety was strongly Marian, and the thanksgiving that followed the lifting of the siege on May 8 belongs to that devotional world. The medieval church of Saint-Paul that housed the image was destroyed in the bombardment of June 1940. The belfry survived. The nave and apse standing today were built afterwards, around the image they exist to hold.

A late medieval belfry in stone, standing beside a nave and rounded apse of the mid twentieth century. The join is plainly visible from the street and is the most instructive thing about the exterior.

Spiritual Significance

Spiritual Significance

Quiet, parochial, and unpretentious. People come here to pray before the image rather than to look at anything. For a pilgrim who has spent the morning in the cathedral among the Johannine windows and the ceremony, half an hour here restores the proportion: the city asked Our Lady first.

Do Not Miss · 4 stops

Do Not Miss

  1. The image of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles

    The focus of the oldest continuous devotion in Orléans, and the reason the church was rebuilt after 1940.

  2. The medieval belfry

    The surviving tower of the old church of Saint-Paul, and the only substantial medieval fabric on the site.

  3. The join

    From the street you can see exactly where the fifteenth century stops and the twentieth begins. Few churches make the distinction so easy.

  4. The Marian frame

    Orléans attributed its deliverance in 1429 to Our Lady as much as to any soldier. This is where that was and is prayed.

How to Visit

How to Visit

Come after the cathedral rather than before it, and give it half an hour. It is a short walk from Sainte-Croix through the old streets, and the walk is part of the point.

  • Mass and the ordinary parish round
  • Marian devotion focused on the image of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles
  • A place in the city's Johannine observance at the beginning of May
  • Confession and private prayer during opening hours
Current Practical Information · reviewed September 2, 2026

A working parish church in the center of Orléans.

Where
Central Orléans, a short walk from the cathedral
Diocese
Diocese of Orléans
Known for
The venerated image of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles
Time needed
Half an hour
Before you go
Confirm opening and Mass times with the diocese; parish hours are shorter than cathedral hours
Opening
A parish church with shorter and less predictable hours than the cathedral, open around its liturgies. Hours are not listed here. Confirm them with the Diocese of Orléans, particularly outside the Johannine week.
  • The exterior, including the surviving medieval belfry, can be seen at any hour from the street.

Schedules can change for liturgies, security, feast days, and special events.

Official source Diocese of Orléans

Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects

Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects

Inside A Rebuilt Nave Around an Older Devotion The body of the church was rebuilt in the twentieth century after the bombardment of 1940. The devotion it houses is far older than its walls.

Tomb and Burial

  • No one venerated as a saint is buried here.

Relics and Sacred Tradition

  • The church holds no relic of Joan of Arc, and none should be looked for. Its devotional focus is Marian.

Sacred Objects

  • The venerated image of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles, the object of Orléans's oldest continuous devotion.
  • The medieval belfry of the former church of Saint-Paul, the surviving fabric of the site.
  • The painted decoration of the rebuilt sanctuary.
Continue Your Pilgrimage · In the old center

The rest of the Orléans geography

Map · Orléans, France

Map

Editorial sources

Orléans has a long and well attested Marian devotion under the title of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles, and Joan's own thanksgiving in the city belongs in that devotional context. The devotion is the continuity here, not the fabric.

Official

orleans.catholique.fr

Last reviewed

September 2, 2026

Photo credits
  1. Hero. Photo: Peter17, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  2. A Rebuilt Nave Around an Older Devotion. Photo: Peter17, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.