For the chaplain of the Paris fire brigade, the hardest thing about the blaze at Notre Dame Cathedral was cracking the security codes to rescue its most precious relic.
Fire chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier is being hailed as a hero for his role in salvaging the crown of thorns during Monday’s fire.
Fournier told Catholic broadcaster KTO on Wednesday that “the difficulty for us was to find the person holding the security codes to open the safe where the holy relic is kept.”
The chaplain was also celebrated for tending to the injured and praying for the dead in Paris’ Bataclan concert hall after the 2015 Islamic extremist attack there. He also spent time in Afghanistan with the French military.
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