Saint-Marie Cathedral/Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica
Saigon Hochiminh City, Vietnam

"Ho Chi Minh City..., formerly named Saigon... is the largest city in Vietnam." (See Link 2.) "Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica is a cathedral located in the downtown of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. " (See Link 1.)

"On 7 October 1877, Bishop Isidore Colombert laid the first stone in an inaugural ceremony. The construction of the cathedral took three years. On Easter Day, 11 April 1880, a blessing ceremony and ceremony of completion were solemnly organized in presence of the Governor of Cochinchina Charles Le Myre de Vilers. One can see the granite plate inside the main entry gate commemorating the start and completion dates and designer. The total cost was 2,500,000 French francs (at that time price). At the beginning, the cathedral was called State Cathedral due to source of the construction cost...

"All building materials were imported from France. The outside wall of the cathedral was built with bricks from Marseille. Although the contractor did not use coated concrete, these bricks have retained their bright red color until today...

"In 1895, two bell towers were added to the cathedral, each 57.6 m high with six bronze bells with the total weight of 28.85 metric tonnes. The crosses were installed on the top of each tower of 3.5 m high, 2 m wide, 600 kg in weight. The total height of the cathedral to the top of the Cross is 60.5 m...

"In 1959, Bishop Joseph Pham Van Thien, whose jurisdiction included Saigon parish, attended the Holy Mother Congress held in Vatican and ordered a Peaceful Notre Dame statue made with granite in Rome. When the statue arrived in Saigon on 16 February 1959, Bishop Pham Van Thien held a ceremony to install the statue... the cathedral was then-on called Notre-Dame Cathedral.  In 1962...this cathedral was called Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica.

Virgin Mary Statue

"During October 2005, the statue was reported to have shed tears, attracting thousands of people and forcing authorities to stop traffic around the Cathedral. However, the top clergy of the Catholic Church in Vietnam confirmed that the Virgin Mary statue in front of a cathedral did not shed tears, which nevertheless failed to disperse the crowd flocking to the statue days after the incident. The reported 'tear' flowed down the right cheek of the face of the statue." (See Link 1.)

Photos: Top photo copied by SW from a post card, labeled St. Marie
                Cathedral, sent by friend Lila in 2010.
                Second photo photoshopped from first.
Link 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saigon_Notre-Dame_Basilica
Link 2:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City

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Prayer

God, be with the persecuted Christians through out the world. Amen (SW.)