From the suburbs of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to Notre-Dame de Paris :
The remarkable journey of a former UN humanitarian worker who became one of Europe’s leading church craftsmen
Charles-Emmanuel Guise began his career as a church craftsman in 2010 in Birmingham with the creation of the reliquary for John Henry Newman. He later crafted the reliquary of John Paul II in Brussels and went on to complete numerous major commissions, including an entire set of liturgical furnishings for the choir of a new church in Taiwan. Charles-Emmanuel is also recognized as the last icon board maker in France and was recently appointed to the Ordre national du Mérite for his contribution to the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris.
The real question is this: why would a humble craftsman receive such a prestigious distinction—something that would have seemed almost unimaginable just twenty years ago? The answer can be traced to the morning of April 16, 2019, in Paris. After coming so close to losing one of its greatest treasures to fire, France saw an outpouring of support and donations from around the world, particularly from the United States, to rebuild Notre-Dame de Paris. Funding was not the challenge. The real difficulty was finding enough master craftsmen with the traditional skills needed to carry out the restoration—skills that had become increasingly rare by 2019.
On June 13, Charles-Emmanuel shared his journey from UN humanitarian worker in the suburbs of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to leading church craftsman restoring one of the world's most famous cathedrals.