Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux

Notre-Dame des Blancs-Manteaux is a Roman Catholic parish church at 12 Rue des Blancs-Manteaux in Le Marais, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. It takes its name from the "Les Blancs-Manteaux" ("white mantles"), for the cloaks worn by the mendicant Augustinian Order of Servites, who founded the first church 1258. It was rebuilt between 1685 and 1689 in the French Baroque or French neoclassical style. It is noted for its remarkable carved wood pulpit (1749) and its collection of paintings and sculpture.

==History== The church was founded by the Serfs de Marie, a community of monks founded in 1223 in Marseille, who followed the rules of Saint Augustine, and wore a black robe with a white mantle. With the support of King Louis XIII, they moved to Paris, and were given a large plot of land in the Marais district, just outside the city walls, formerly owned by the Order of the Knights Templar. It extended the length of the old rue de la Petite Parchemerie, now rue des Blancs-Manteaux. They built their first church there in 1258. Soon afterwards, However, in 1274, the Second Council of Lyon, held by the Vatican, decided to dissolve twenty-two different religious orders, including the Serfs de Marie. The abbey was transferred to the Order of the Brothers of Saint Guillaume of Malval and then, in 1618, to the Benedictine monks of the Order of Saint Maurus, who placed the novice monks there for their education. The monks no longer wore the white mantle, but the name "Blancs-Manteaux" stayed with the church.