A historic church in northern France was destroyed in an arson attack on Monday. The 39-year-old suspect, who has been named as Joël Vigoureux, was arrested after the blaze at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the town of Saint-Omer.
Vigoureux is “known for similar acts of destruction by fire,” the prosecutor of Saint-Omer, Mehdi Benbouzid, told AFP. The attacker is facing a criminal charge of “destruction of property by dangerous means because of religion,” Benbouzid added.
The fire reportedly started around 4 a.m. before spreading to the side and central aisles. It then reached the roof and bell tower, which collapsed. It took 120 firefighters to contain the conflagration.
No injuries were reported, although around 60 local residents were evacuated as a precaution.
Parish priest Fr. Sébastien Roussel told Catholic News Agency that he was able to rescue the Blessed Sacrament and a reliquary from the church:
With the authorisation and under the supervision of the firefighters, I was able to enter the church when the fire was under control to take what is most important, namely the ciborium in the tabernacle at first, then several statues and elements of the liturgical furniture.
His actions enabled the rescue of the Blessed Sacrament and around 20 other religious artefacts, including a reliquary bust of Saint Corneille.
The neo-Gothic church dates back to 1859, but was completely renovated by the local council in 2018 at a cost of €5m.
According to the Observatoire du Patrimoine Religieux, 27 churches were burnt down in 2023, and 12 were attacked in the first six months of 2024.
In July this year, the church of Notre-Dame du Travail in the 14th arrondissement of Paris was defiled with violent Islamist graffiti calling for war, decapitation of Christians, and threatening to burn the church down. The next day, parishioners discovered a fire had been started, but fortunately, it did not spread.
Last year, a French criminal court gave a four-year prison sentence to a Rwandan national after finding him guilty of setting fire to the Saint-Paul and Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Nantes in July 2020. That arson attack resulted in severe damage to the 15th century church.
