Dedication of Our Lady of the Doms

Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, did not find the work of Saint Martha worthy of its purpose; he expanded this primitive sanctuary, and he did so with all the more zeal as it was near there, in the plain stretching from Avignon to the sea, that he had had that famous vision of the luminous cross which determined his conversion. In 731, the Saracens came to sack Constantine's church; but from 785 to 800, Charlem agne raised Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. it from its ruins and displayed, in this construction, all the riches of Romano-Lombard architecture. It even appears that he used the remains of two neighboring pagan temples, if one is to judge by the pediment of the porch, whose architecture bears a striking resemblance to the monuments remaining from Roman rule. In recognition of the pious generosity of the holy emperor, Jesus Christ, it is said, came in person in the middle of the night to consecrate the new church. Sacred ministers, who were undoubtedly his angels, assisted him, some chanting the office, others performing the ceremonies; and after he had completed all the ceremonial of solemn dedications around the nave, he celebrated the divine mysteries, according to the customary rites, on the consecrated altar, which is commonly believed to have been the five-columned altar with a hollow table in the fourth chapel on the right. This marvelous event was witnessed by a noble lady who, out of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, went every morning to the sanctuary of the Doms at the first sound of the bell, and who, that night, had gone there shortly after midnight, awakened by the bell which had rung earlier than usual. At the offertory, she placed her gold ring in the plate, saying that s he would co anneau d'or Miraculous object that served as proof of the divine dedication of the church. me to retrieve it in broad daylight while bringing her usual offering, which she had forgotten to bring. The minister who received it indicated the place where she would find it, adding that it would then bear the imprint of certain characters that were engraved behind the altar. At the break of dawn, hearing the chapter office ringing, this lady returned to the church, quite astonished, and asked the reason for this second office; and as they would not believe her regarding what she said about the first, she offered as proof her ring, which was to be found in the place she designated, imprinted with the same characters that the back of the altar bore.

October 8, the anniversary of this marvelous dedication, was established as a holy day of obligation, with a prohibition of all servile work under pain of excommunication. On that day, from four o'clock in the morning, the sound of bells called the faithful to the holy mountain; and the divine sacrifice was offered on a portable altar set up in the middle of the choir, facing the high altar. Only the second archdeacon could enter the sanctuary with the youngest altar boy, who presented the cruets to him; and during the entire sacrifice, the archbishop, the chapter, the deacon, and the subdeacon all remained outside the sanctuary. The celebrant used the chali ce that J Jean XXII Pope who placed the diocese of Rieux under the protection of Saint Cizy. ohn XXII had bequeathed, along with his cope enriched with precious stones, on the condition that both would be u sed only Sixte IV Pope who authorized the reform of the Couëts. on that day. In 1475, Sixtus IV felt able to say in his bull of November 21: "We have learned that the church of Avignon, illustrious among the other cathedrals of these regions, was founded by Saint Martha, the hostess of Jesus Christ, in honor of Our Lord and the glorious Virgin, and that it was consecrated by the hand of God Himself, as is generally said, as the ancients report, and as the letters of several Roman Pontiffs attest." At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the metropolitan chapter had an inscription engraved under the narthex of Notre-Dame, where one reads that "when Charlemagne had the church rebuilt, Jesus Christ, as constant tradition teaches and as the constitutions of Popes John XXII and Sixtus IV declare, consecrated it with His sacred hand." In 1600, the provost of the cathedral, receiving Queen Marie de' Medici on her passage through Avignon, said to her in the presence of her entire court and the notables of the city: "Let us pray, Madame, to the Sovereign Creator whose eternal hand was pleased to miraculously consecrate this church." In 1622, the illustrious Bishop of Vaison, Monsignor de Suarez, whose great erudition later led to his appointment as prefect of the Vatican Library, wrote the following distich: *Num rata, quæ nobis perhibet veneranda vetustas, Quod fuit a Christo adstante sacrata? — Rata.* In 1701, the provost of the cathedral used the same language to the sons of France, receiving them solemnly under the porch of the basilica. Thus spoke also, in 1708, Monsignor de Gonteri, twenty-first Archbishop of Avignon, in the letter where he reported to Clement XI on the state of his diocese; in 1750, M. de Cambis-Velleron in his Annales d'Avignon; and a few years later, the learned abbots of Massillian and de Véras. Can there be a more continuous and authorized tradition?

Thus, Notre-Dame des Doms has always been held in singular veneration. It was under its vaults that the holy bishops of Avignon sat during their lives and wished to rest after their deaths: Saint Ruf, the first of all, Saint Maxime, Saint Agricol, and Saint Vérédéme. It was within its walls that in 1096 Urban II published the Rule of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine. Shortly after, Gelasius II and Callixtus II pontifically celebrated the holy mysteries there; Anastasius IV and Adrian IV were canons there before being raised to the Chair of Saint Peter, and in 1163, Alexander III consecrated Saint Anthelme, Bishop of Belley, there. This illustrious church saw Saint Remi of Reims, Saint Mayeul of Cluny, Saint Pons de Villeneuve, Saint Hugh of Grenoble, Saint Dominic, Saint Peter of Luxembourg, Saint Francis Borgia, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Peter Thomas, Saint Bertrand of Aquileia, the blesseds Jean Soreth and Louis Allemand, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Delphine, and Saint Colette pray at its altar. In 1170, Saint Bénézet received from God the order to build a bridge over the Rhône and announced it publicly; in 1 322, John Jean XXII Pope who placed the diocese of Rieux under the protection of Saint Cizy. XXII ordered the triple daily ringing of the Angelus there, unknown until then to the Catholic world, and received near the cathedral porch the famous apparition where the Virgin ordered him to publish, in favor of the Carmel and the Scapular, the Sabbatine Bull. Later, under this same porch, Saint Andrew Corsini miraculously restored sight to a blind man; and towards the beginning of the fifteenth century, Saint Vincent Ferrer did not miss a single day, during the ten years he spent in Avignon, to sing Mass there every morning at the altar of Mary.

Kings and the great of the world vied with the Saints in devotion to Notre-Dame des Doms; and one saw kneeling before its altar, in 1226, Louis VIII; in 1324, Charles the Fair; in 1365, Emperor Charles IV and Duke Amadeus VI of Savoy; in 1388, Charles VI; in 1420, Charles VII, while still Dauphin; in 1516, Francis I; in 1564, Charles IX; in 1574, Henry III; in 1579, Catherine de' Medici; in 1600, Marie de' Medici; in 1622, Louis XIII, and in 1660, Louis XIV and his mother, Anne of Austria.

In the fourteenth century, seven Popes appeared there in all the splendor of their pontifical majesty: Clement V, John XXII, Benedict XII, Clement VI, Innocent VI, Urban V, and Gregory XI, who instituted the feast of the Presentation of Our Lady in Avignon, in the church of the Cordeliers. Four of them were crowned there; and three chose it as their burial place. At the same time, Saint Peter Celestine, Saint Louis of Toulouse, and Saint Thomas of Hereford were canonized there. Robert the Wise was crowned King of the Two Sicilies there, and Hélion de Villeneuve was consecrated Grand Master of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem there. The feast of the Holy Trinity, as well as the feast of the Holy Lance and the Holy Nails, were instituted there. The first procession of Corpus Christi was celebrated there; the holy war against the Moors of Africa and the Saracens of Spain was proclaimed there three times; Kings Philip the Fair and Peter of Aragon were absolved there of the excommunication they had incurred; John II swore an oath of fidelity to the Pope and took the cross there with the King of Cyprus and the King of Denmark. Finally, within the walls of this basilica, fifty-three councils or synods were held; and there rests Benedict XII, with one hundred and fifty-seven cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, and a crowd of high dignitaries of both State and Church, among whom must be counted the valiant Crillon, nicknamed the bravest of the brave.

This church, so rich in glory, is built halfway up a rock, from where it dominates the entire city. Its facade, majestic in its simplicity, is preceded by a porch with a triangular pediment, which reproduces one of the most beautiful pieces of Romanesque architecture, and followed by a heavy square tower, which is pierced by sixteen bays, and crowned by an Ionic balustrade with a dome of recent construction, on the lantern of which rests the statue of the Virgin. The interior of the building brings together all genres of architecture, from the Corinthian frieze of the finest days of the Caesars, to the Greco-Roman veneer of the time of Louis XV, although the Romanesque style prevails with all the severity of its lines and the solidity of its construction. There is only one nave, vaulted with a pointed barrel vault, around which run graceful seventeenth-century galleries. To the right and left of this nave are distributed chapels of various styles and sizes, in which are two altars of Mary, added to Our Lady of the Assumption which is at the high altar. The first is Our Lady of All-Power, in the Saint-Roch chapel. It is the most frequented of all, and its feast is celebrated on the Sunday following Our Lady of the Snows. Its statue, in Saint-Didier stone, is covered with polychrome paint, which was refreshed in 1859 to be carried in procession on a stretcher, simulating the walled enclosure of the city and crowned with garlands of lilies.

When in 1409 the Palace of the Popes was besieged, defended by the soldiers of the antipope Peter de Luna, the canons hid it, as their most precious treasure, inside the city. The second altar is that of Our Lady of the Doms, under the rotunda. It is there that, before a life-size marble statue, the association of the Perpetual Cult of Mary has its seat and its ass emblies: a pious association whose memb association du Culte perpétuel de Marie Pious association ensuring continuous prayer in the basilica. ers divide among themselves all the days of the year and all the hours of each day, to succeed one another at the feet of the Mother of God, and thus render her an incessant and public cult. Erected at the beginning of the last century by Archbishop de Gonteri, approved and enriched with indulgences in 1713 by Clement XI, it lost a large number of associates due to the plague of 1721 and 1722, and its exercises were interrupted for some time. In 1727, Archbishop de Gonteri solemnly re-established it, and himself performed the first hour of Perpetual Veneration. The following hours were filled by the metropolitan chapter, then by all the faithful of the city. Interrupted by the Revolution of '93, it resumed its course in 1853.

To this confraternity, the cathedral also joins the confraternity of the Holy Heart of Mary, the pilgrims of Saint-Roch, the porters of Saint-Nicolas, the masons, the locksmiths, and other trades. Every Saturday, the exercises of the archconfraternity of Our Lady of Victories are held there; the entire month of Mary is preached there, as well as a novena preparatory to the feast of the Immaculate Conception; and, on December 8, the feast is celebrated with exceptional solemnity. Finally, in the momentum of its love for the Blessed Virgin, the city of Avignon placed a monumental statue of Mary Immaculate on the ridge of its basilica; and October 24, 1859, the day of this inauguration, remained a famous day in the annals of the city. Seven bishops and more than one hundred thousand people had come from twenty to thirty leagues for the ceremony; and from nine o'clock in the morning until four o'clock in the evening, an immense procession unfolded throughout the city, through streets carpeted with greenery, making the air resound with songs of joy, musical symphonies, and military detonations, to which were mingled the joyful chimes of all the bells. It was one of the most magnificent tributes that the Immaculate Virgin has ever received.

Touched by the zeal of the people of Avignon for the honor of the Mothe Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. r of God, Pius IX took pleasure in glorifying Notre-Dame des Doms. On November 21, 1475, Sixtus IV had erected it as a metropolitan see. On December 22, 1854, Pius IX raised it to the rank of minor basilica, restored to its chapter the use of the cardinalitial purple, and to its old association of Perpetual Worship, its canonical existence. Later, he sent it, in a preciou s reliquary, th sainte Félicité Third-century martyr whose body was gifted by Pius IX to the basilica. e entire body of Saint Felicity, a martyr of the third century, and granted it a plenary indulgence on the feasts of Christmas, the Epiphany, the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, the Immaculate Conception, the Nativity, the Presentation, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Purification, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, as well as on the feasts of Saint Augustine, Saint Ruf, Saint Martha, Saint Gregory the Great, the miraculous dedication of the basilica, and finally, every Sunday of the year, not counting the partial indulgences of three hundred days for each visit made there, of seven years and seven quarantines if it is a Saturday, and of five hundred days for all Masses heard there.

Excerpt from Notre-Dame de France, by the parish priest of Saint-Sulpice.