Notre-Dame Cathedral In Saigon, Vietnam Established by French
colonists, the cathedral was constructed between 1863 and 1880.
It has two bell towers, reaching a height of over 58 meters (190
feet). Following the French conquest of Cochinchina and Saigon,
the Roman Catholic Church established a community and religious
services for French colonialists. The first church was built on
Rue 5 (today's Ngo Duc Ke Street). This had been a Vietnamese
pagoda, which had been abandoned during the war. Bishop Lefevre
decided to make this pagoda a church. In 1959, Bishop Joseph
Pham Van Thien, whose jurisdiction included Saigon parish,
attended 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 February 16th, 1959, Bishop Pham
Van Thien held a ceremony to install the statue on the empty
base and presented the title of "Regina Pacis". It was Bishop
Pham Van Thien who wrote the prayers "Notre-Dame blesses the
peace to Vietnam". On the