Our Lady of Médous

We shall not collect all the oral traditions associated with the cult of the Virgin of Médous. But here is a marvelous fact, authentically verified, and for which evidence still exists in the archives of Bagnères.

The year that preceded the contagio n with wh contagion Devastating epidemic that struck Bagnères and its surroundings. ich the city of Bagnères was afflicted, that is to say in the year 1588, the winter was so harsh that the Adour river froze. One could walk on the ice: it had to be broken with effort around the mills to be able to grind the wheat. The bread hardened and resisted the knife; one was obliged to put it back in the oven to thaw it out; and never, before or since, had such ice been seen.

The same year, the rain fell in such abundance that the water entered all the houses of the city and rose above the bridge of the Adour. On the eve of Easter, snow fell in such great quantity that one could neither enter nor leave the city, one could not walk in the streets, and the animals being brought to market died on the way. On the eve of Saint John's Day, it hailed so strangely that the hail killed birds, mutilated trees, and broke roofs. All the waters, usually so clear, of the rivers and fountains of Bagnères, were infected with a sort of strange animalcules, and neither men nor animals could drink them before they had been clarified.

Shortly before the contagion, trout of extraordinary length, abandoning the bed of the Adour, circulated in the streams of the streets, and never had such enormous fish been seen, nor in such great quantity. Dogs and cats did nothing but utter plaintive and lamentable cries, night and day, inside the houses and outside.

Now, at that time, there lived in Bagnères a poor woman endowed with great virtue, named Do menge Liloye. Domenge Liloye Pious widow from Beaudéan, recipient of Marian apparitions. She was born in Beaudéan. Having become a widow, she lived in the town, in the district at the foot of the Pouey , with h Andrelle Daughter of Domenge Liloye, associated with her devotion. er daughter Andrelle, aged thirteen to fourteen.

The holy widow appeared in public only to go to Mass or to processions. She had a very special devotion to Our Lady of Médous; she would go to the chapel making the journey barefoot, and sometimes even crawling on her knees. Often Andrelle followed her. And everyone admired the devotion and mortifications of the mother and daughter.

One day the Virgin appeared to her in the chapel of Médous, and ordered her to warn the priests and the consuls of Bagnères to do penance and to set themselves to prayer to disarm the wrath of heaven. A great misfortune threatened them; they had to try to avert it through public supplications, through processions to the church of Médous.

Liloye spoke to the inhabitants of Bagnères of what Our Lady had announced to her; but they took no account of these warnings.

Shortly after, the plague broke out in the city. Five-sixths of the people were taken away. Only those who had sought their salvation in flight far away survived. All the rest perished. A full year had passed since the cessation of the scourge when the inhabitants returned to their purified and rebuilt homes.

One of the principal ladies of the city, Simone de Souville, nicknamed Mourell Simone de Souville Lady of Bagnères who mocked the visions of Liloye and the first victim of the second plague. e, allowed herself to mock Liloye for the fears she had caused with her visions, and she repeated to her that the plague had only reached those who were too poor to get treated. The holy widow replied that she had only said what the Virgin herself had commanded her to say.

Liloye had not ceased to frequent the church of Médous. She would strike her breast with a stone to ask God, through the intercession of His mother, for mercy for the people of Bagnères. When she went to Médous, if the door was closed, she would kneel and pray: immediately, she would see the door open, and she could finish her prayer at the foot of the altar. A few days after the mocking remarks of Simone de Souville, Our Lady of Médous appeared to her again and said: "Go and warn Simone de Souville that the scourge will not be long in reappearing; this time it will spare the poor and strike only the rich. She herself will be the first victim; let her therefore think of preparing herself to die well."

Liloye shared the words of the Virgin with her, and soon after, the plague reappeared in Bagnères, and Simone de Souville was the first who succumbed, and she was buried at the Montjoie, on the road to Campan, which, since then, the people of Gerde call the Montjoie de Mourelle.

As a great number of people were perishing from the contagion, the people of Bagnères made a vow to go in a general procession to Our Lady of Médous, and the plague ceased immediately. To this procession, all the inhabitants of the town flocked, both great and small. At their head walked Liloye and her daughter, dressed in white, barefoot, with a candle in their h Dominicains Religious order to which Christophe Ptolomée belonged. and. The Dominicans renewed the procession for nine days; the town of Bagnères continued it every year, on the 2nd of the month of August, and the neighboring parishes also went processionally to Médous, to ask the Virgin to appease the wrath of God and to draw down the blessings of heaven upon the land.

Exce rpt from Pèlerinages des Pèlerinages des Pyrénées Work by Gustave Bascle de Lagrèze serving as a source for the text. Pyrénées, by Gustave Bascle de Lagrèze.