Église Marie Reine de la Paix, Notre-Dame du Mékong

In the heart of Cambodia, nestled in the Kandal Province, stands the Église Marie Reine de la Paix, Notre-Dame du Mékong. This unassuming church holds a remarkable story, a tale woven with faith, providence, and the mighty Mekong River. Église Marie Reine de la Paix, Notre-Dame du Mékong was built in 2006, serving the Vietnamese Catholic community in Areyksat. It replaced a smaller structure that couldn’t accommodate the growing congregation. The church’s designation as a Marian sanctuary, the only one in Cambodia, stems from the miraculous discovery of two statues of the Virgin Mary. These discoveries led to an annual pilgrimage, drawing thousands of faithful from Cambodia and neighboring Vietnam, culminating in celebrations each May and November. The first statue surfaced on April 16, 2008. A Muslim Khmer fisherman snagged a metallic object in the Mekong, north of the Areyksat ferry. Unable to retrieve it alone, he enlisted the help of eight Buddhist Vietnamese fishermen. They winched up a statue of a woman. Word spread, reaching a Catholic parishioner of Église Marie Reine de la Paix. She identified it as the Virgin Mary. The pastoral council offered to buy the statue for two million riels. That night, one fisherman dreamt of the statue hovering over them. Fearing a bad omen, they returned to the church, prayed to the Virgin Mary, and declined the money. The council used the funds for food aid for the fishermen’s families. The statue, identified as Our Lady of Lourdes, made of cast iron and originating from France, was placed on an 8.10-meter pedestal beside the church. It bears the inscription “Union Artistique de Vaucouleurs (Meuse).” Years later, in November 2012, a former Buddhist fisherman, Phang Vaing Hou, dreamt of a statue in the river, asking to be retrieved. The next day, he and his sons found a 2.30-meter statue of the Virgin and Child. It was brought to Église Marie Reine de la Paix, inspiring prayer and joy among the villagers. Phang Vaing Hou, feeling both joy and awe, prayed for his wife’s healing. He donated the statue, and later, he and his wife were baptized. The date and time of this discovery coincided with a public holiday declared for the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh. The Mekong ferry traffic was halted, facilitating the statue’s retrieval. Like the first, this statue, “Notre-Dame de la Providence,” was made of cast iron at the Union Artistique de Vaucouleurs. The origin of the statues remains a mystery, likely due to the destruction of Catholic Church archives during Cambodia’s turbulent past. However, Christian communities and churches, including a Carmelite convent, once existed upstream from Areyksat. A cast iron statue of the Sacred Heart from Vaucouleurs, once at the convent, now resides at Sainte-Marie-Madeleine Church in Phnom Penh. Perhaps the statues came from these ravaged places of worship, thrown into the river or hidden for safekeeping. Église Marie Reine de la Paix, Notre-Dame du Mékong, stands as a testament to faith and resilience, its story intertwined with the Mekong’s flow and Cambodia’s history.