Le Puy-en-Velay, France: Shrine of Our Lady of Le Puy

The story of Our Lady of Le Puy:

One of the oldest shrines in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary is found here in this town in central France. The exact dates are unknown, but somewhere between the third and fourth centuries a local woman with an incurable disease had an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was told to climb Mt. Corneille, which had formerly been a place of pagan worship, where she would be cured by the simple act of sitting on the great stone at the top. Following this advice, the woman was miraculously cured of her ailment.

Appearing to the woman a second time, Mary gave instructions that the local bishop should be contacted and told to build a church on the hill. According to tradition, when the bishop climbed the hill, he found the ground covered in deep snow even though it was the middle of July. A lone deer walked through the snow, tracing the ground plan of the cathedral that was to be built. When the Bishop visited the spot again in the summer he was amazed to see flowers had replaced the thorn bushes that outlined the chapel.

Convinced by these miracles of the authenticity of Mary’s wishes, the bishop decided to have a chapel built here.  In 1254 Louis IX, on returning from the seventh crusade, showed his devotion by giving the sanctuary a cedar statue, probably of Egyptian origin and depicting an oriental goddess, perhaps Isis with the small Horus in her arms, who was immediately venerated with enthusiasm, as “Black Madonna”.

In 1620, however, Odo di Gissey said that the statue was actually much older and dated back to the times of a pilgrimage by King Clovis to the holy land. In 1778 Faugias de Sant Fouds, after careful examination, defined it the oldest statue of the Virgin owned by France.

Dominating the city from the top of the Corneille rocky peak, the Statue of Our Lady of Le Puy en Velay is 120 feet (38.7 meters) high and weighs 835 tons. The statue was made from melting down 213 guns taken during the Sevastopol battle on September 8, 1855 during the Crimean War.  Offered by General Pélissier, winner of the Crimean War, it was a gift of Napolean III and was sculpted by Jean-Marie Bonnassieux. The monument represents the Virgin Mary in the act of indicating the city to Jesus to bless it.

The statue of Notre Dame de France was inaugurated on September 12, 1860, in front of 120,000 pilgrims.

Additional points of interest include Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy, a 12th-century Romanesque masterpiece with black-and-white striped facade, octagonal cupolas, Chapelle Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe, an 11th-century chapel atop a 259 foot (85 meters) volcanic plug, ascended by 268 steps, and the Baptistery of St. John,an 11th-century structure built on to of Roman ruins.

The town was famous for being one of the main starting points on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.

About the Shrine of Our Lady of Le Puy:

There are daily Masses in French and sometimes in English here at the Shrine.

In addition to the Cathedral you can climb to the Sanctuary of Saint Michael located high above the town. Needless to say, it is quite a climb, as you can guess from the photograph at the top of the page.

Although the town is a bit of the beaten track and not offered by most pilgrimage companies, it still attracts over 700,000 visitors each year.

The main feast day for Our Lady of Le Puy is August 15 (Feast of the Assumption) and involves festivities like a torchlit procession the night before, mass, and a grand procession through the decorated city.

There is an additional celebration on September 9, the date that commemorates the large statue of Notre Dame de France that was inaugurated in 1860, which The celebration is held the day after the Feast of the Nativity of Mary.

Traveling to Le Puy-en Velay:

Le Puy-en-Velay is located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France, in the Haute-Loire department. It lies within the Massif Central mountain range. You can reach Le Puy by train from Lyon, the trip takes about 2 hours. Get train & bus schedules, see fares & buy tickets here.   Of course you can also reach it by road either from Lyon or Clermont-Ferrand.

Address: 2 Rue de la Manecanterie 43000 Le Puy-en-Velay

GPS coordinates: 45° 2′ 44.1816” N, 3° 53′ 5.1684” E

Tel: +33 4 71 09 79 77

email: contact@cathedraledupuy.org

Click here for the website of Our Lady of Le Puy.

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