Our Lady of Le Puy

Saint George was then governing the church of Velay. Informed of the fact, he climbed Mount Anis, perceived a part of the plateau covered in snow, although it was then July 11th, a time of the greatest heat, and in the middle of this snow a stag which, taking flight at his approach, traced by the impression of its steps the enclosure of a church. The holy bishop surrounded the marked enclosure with a hedge of thorns; and Saint Martial, who was evangelizing the neighboring regions, having come in his turn to visit Mount Anis, which fame was already signaling to public attention, designated the place of the altar, and left as a relic to the future church a shoe of the Blessed Virgin, which he had brought from Rome.

However, the church remained in the project stage until the episcopate of Saint Vosy, around the year 220. Then a paralyzed lady, from the village of Ceyssac, having had herself carried to the same stone as the widow of Velaune, and having had the same vision there, heard the same words, and obtained a similar healing, hastened to inform Saint Vosy. The latter, after three days of fasting and prayer, climbed the rock followed by all the people, and found the enclosure formed by the hedge still covered in thick snow. At this sight, seized with a holy transport, he exclaimed: "This is the house of God and the gate of heaven," and he took the resolution to transfer there the episcopal see, which was then at Saint-Paulien. This required the consent of the Pope; he went to Rome, obtained the necessary authorization, and brought back with him Scrutaire, a young Roman of senatorial race, as skilled in architecture as he was pious and modest. They immediately set to work: rich and poor, all lent their assistance. There, one does not seek art and ornamentation: it is a perfect unity of forms; it is moldings of the most ordinary kind; it is mosaics of stones of different colors, forming squares and diamonds; it is, in short, the architecture of the era, solid, but perfectly simple. Thus, in seven years, they finished the apse and the first dome, that is to say, the rotunda occupied today by the stalls of the chapter and what is called the angelic chamber.

This edifice completed, the bishop and the young Scrutaire judged it appropriate to go and report it to the Pope, and to ask him for permission to perform the solemn consecration. They had barely gone a quarter of a league when two old men dressed in white, each carrying a golden casket, presented themselves to them, handed them relics which they said came from Rome, and invited them to return, barefoot, to carry them to the church of Mount Anis, "the consecration of which," they added, "is being performed at this moment by the ministry of the angels."

And immediately they disappeared. The prelate and his companion, seized with respect, took off their shoes, returned with the precious caskets, and told those they met what had just happened. The news spread everywhere with the speed of lightning. The people flocked, joined the bishop, and a procession was formed, which soon arrived at the top of Mount Anis. The doors of the church opened by themselves, the sanctuary appeared lit by a multitude of torches, and the altar sprinkled with an oil whose perfume embalmed the entire church. The bishop, in his rapture, intoned the canticle of thanksgiving, the assistants followed him with joy. The prayer finished, more than three hundred torches were collected, two of which are still preserved in the treasury of the church, and, from that day on, the cathedral of Le Puy has been known under the beautiful name of the angelic church, which all the centuries have preserved for it.

Fame carried the news of these prodigies far and wide: people flocked to the new sanctuary, and happy to take shelter in its shadow, many made their dwelling in the vicinity, until in a short time they formed a small town, then a larger city, which became the capita capitale du Velay Birthplace of the saint in France. l of Velay, as it was already the seat of the bishops.

Although the greatest splendor of the church of Le Puy springs from the angelic chamber, the erection of which was so full of miracles, it is true to say that the miraculous statue, which was venerated there for several centuries, had an even greater influence on its glory. This image had been brought from the Holy Land in 1254 by Saint L saint Louis King of France who visited the relics of Saint Hildevert. ouis, who came expressly to Le Puy to pay homage to the basilica of Mary. It was made of hard wood, of shittim wood according to some, of oak or ebony according to others, and represented the Blessed Virgin seated on a kind of stool, holding the Child Jesus on her knees. Bands tightly wrapped in the manner of Egyptian mummies enveloped the image of the Son and the Mother, and allowed only their faces to be seen.

For five centuries, the glorious Virgin of Mount Anis received the homage of eager crowds, when in 1793 she was torn from her sanctuary by incredulous fanaticism, dragged ignominiously through those streets once witnesses to her triumph, and burned on the Place du Martouret, amidst the brûlée sur la place du Martouret Wooden image brought back from the Holy Land, burned in 1793. senseless clamor of a few factionaries, but in the midst of the consternation of the entire sound part of an eminently Catholic population.

Fortunately, the reign of impiety never lasts long. Immediately after the Revolution, a new statue, a faithful copy of the old one, brought back before the eyes the features that the centuries had venerated; the piety of the faithful resumed its momentum, and Mary received and still receives every day, under her new image, as many testimonies of trust and love as under the old one, so dear to our ancestors.

This statue was not the only wealth of the church of Le Puy. The possession of the most distinguished relics formed one of its other glories. Towards the end of the last century, it had a considerable number of them, as proven by the inventory that has been preserved; and gold, silver, and precious stones adorned the reliquaries in which they were kept. But in '93, revolutionary impiety consigned most of these relics to the flames, and the reliquaries that contained them became the prey of greed. Of such riches, nothing remains remarkable except two distinguished relics of the True Cross; one, with its reliquary, given by Pope Innocent III; the other, coming from the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, to which Clement VI had sent it. The church of Le Puy formerly possessed a considerable fragment of the Crown of Thorns, which Saint Louis had presented to it in 12 saint Louis King of France who visited the relics of Saint Hildevert. 39; but this fragment having passed to the main church of Saint-Étienne in Forez, along with the letter signed by the pious monarch which establishes its authenticity, Cardinal de Bonald, when he was Bishop of Le Puy, seemed to want to compensate his cathedral for this loss, and gave it a small portion of the Holy Thorn.

All conditions, from the highest to the most humble, seem to have met at Notre-Dame du Puy, and this throughout every age of history, since the foundation of this sanctuary. One sees there popes and kings, princes and great lords, saints of whom many are canonized, and all classes of the people and society.

The popes who have visited this illustrious basilica are: Urban II (1095), Gelasius II (1110), Callixtus II (1111), Innocent II (1130), Alexander III (1162).

The kings and princes who came to bow their heads before the Madonna of Le Puy are: Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, Charles the Bald, Odo, Robert, Saint Louis and Margaret of Provence, his wife, Philip III, Philip IV, Charles VI, Charles VII, Louis XI, Charles VIII, Francis I; Raymond, Count of Toulouse, and Alfonso II of Aragon: these last two ended their long enmity by embracing before the very altar. In 1062, Dermid, Count of Bigorre, came to pay homage to Him for his county in a famous diploma, entirely imbued with the Christian spirit.

But it was not only kings and great lords who visited the angelic church. The Saints, who have the instinct for good in the highest degree, were the first to come there. We see there three abbots of Cluny: Saint Mayeul, who healed a blind man at Le Puy, Saint Odo, and Peter the Venerable. We see there Saint Robert, founder of La Chaise-Dieu; Saint Stephen, founder of the Order of Grammont; Saint Odo, Abbot of Le Monastier; Saint Hugh of Grenoble, Saint Dominic, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Colette, and above all Saint Vincent Ferrer, who came there preceded by a hundred penitents dressed in sacks, w alking on foot, two b saint Vincent-Ferrier Spanish preacher famous for his missions in Le Puy. y two, and who, for lack of a church vast enough to contain the multitude that had flocked from fifteen to twenty leagues away to hear him, had an amphitheater set up with an altar in the immense meadow of Le Breuil, which included, besides the square of that name, the entire area occupied by the prefecture, the tribunal, the museum, and the promenade. There, while the Saint prepared to offer the holy sacrifice, the penitents gave themselves, before the astonished multitude, a harsh discipline, while exhorting sinners to imitate their example; then, covered in blood, they climbed onto the amphitheater following a banner on which was painted the scourged Savior. During the Mass, which was always sung, Vincent finished softening hearts by shedding a torrent of tears. He then took the floor, and struck down vices with the freedom of an apostle and the ardor of a soul inflamed with the love of God. He preached thus for fifteen consecutive days, without his voice altering or even weakening, although his worn body seemed near to failing. A greater prodigy still, although, being Spanish, he hardly knew French, he made himself understood by all, and the conversions were innumerable.

Saint Francis Regis showed no less devotion toward the Virgin of Mount Anis. Attached by his superiors to the mission of Le Puy, he drew from the feet of Mary the grace of the apostolate, and from there he spread out into the towns and countryside of the Velay to evangelize them.

Like these saintly personages, the venerable Mother Agnes, that early prodigy of holiness whom God filled with such extraordinary graces, made the angelic church her delight; she renewed there the vow of perpetual virginity, and when she was obliged to leave to be superior of the monastery of Langeac, at least once a day she would kneel, her face turned toward Le Puy, to offer her homage as she once did to the Mother of God. Finally, M. Olier, that man of God who founded the Company of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice, had the tenderest devoti on for t M. Olier Founder of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. his sanctuary of Mary. In 1632, he wished to pass through Le Puy to go to Viviers, where his duty called him; and as soon as he arrived, he went up to the cathedral and remained there for a long time in prayer, offering himself to Our Lord and his holy Mother. In 1635, feeling his end approaching, he made the pilgrimage to Le Puy a second time, and here is how he accounts for it himself: "I am in a place," he wrote, "where I would end my life with joy, at the feet of Notre-Dame du Puy, to whom I am indebted for every kind of grace."

Unable to remain always present in body in this church, he left near the image of Mary a silver statue, where he had himself represented in the posture of a suppliant, bowed before her, with a gold medal on which was engraved the seminary of Saint-Sulpice which he presented to her, conjuring her to take it under her protection.

Stimulated by such fine examples, the masses pressed before the Virgin of Mount Anis. People flocked there not only from all the provinces of France, but from foreign kingdoms, as far as Greece and Poland. Spain, in particular, sent so many pilgrims that a hospice was built in Toulouse to receive them on their journey. We come, they said, to honor and pray to Our Lady of France. On the main feast days of the year, the chronicles recount, the beaten paths were no longer sufficient; one walked through the neighboring fields. Such was the ardor of their piety that quite often, in the depths of winter, they made the greater part of the journey barefoot; and as soon as they caught sight of the venerated sanctuary from the heights of the neighboring mountains, they fell to their knees on the snow, on the ice, on the cold stone, and sometimes even in the mud, and greeted the One they had come to visit with such fatigue.

Everything contributed to encouraging these pilgrimages. The city of Le Puy had a hospice to lodge the pilgrims; the State, more indulgent toward those whom illness surprised there, required only the presence of two witnesses for the validity of their wills, whereas elsewhere it required seven. The courts even sometimes imposed this pilgrimage as an expiatory penalty for offenses.

But the Sovereign Pontiffs encouraged it much more powerfully through their indulgences. Pius VI attached a plenary indulgence to the visit of the church, on any day of the year, provided one received communion there; and he added the privilege of the Roman stations, such that by going to pray at the seven altars designated by the Ordinary, one gained the same indulgences as by going to pray at the seven great churches of Rome. Besides all these favors, the Holy See granted another very special one, which no other church in all of Christendom enjoys, namely, the grace of a jubilee e ach time the Annu grâce d'un jubilé Privilege granted when the Annunciation falls on Good Friday. nciation coincides with Good Friday: a very ancient concession, since in 1418, Elie de Lestrange, Bishop of Le Puy, represented to Pope Martin V, at the Council of Constance, that his church had been in possession of this jubilee since time immemorial, and three cardinals present confirmed this assertion.

The last jubilee of the 18th century was that of 1765: eighty thousand pilgrims were counted, that is to say, two or three times fewer than those that had preceded it.

The jubilee that followed was long in coming and did not fall until 1842; but, admirably, after so many upheavals in ideas and things, people flocked there as in the past, and there were no fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims. Shortly after, the Holy See granted Christendom two consecutive jubilees; and the year 1853 brought a new jubilee to the angelic church. One might have thought it would no longer hold the same interest for the people; but that would have been an illusion. On the contrary, never was a more magnificent jubilee seen. The cold was most rigorous, snow covered all the mountains, the public roads were blocked; it did not matter, no difficulty stopped them; they carved a path through the ice and snow, and nearly three hundred thousand pilgrims came to gain the jubilee. There was no room in the city to lodge them: they withdrew into the churches and spent the night praying to Mary, singing her praises, and the bishop, reporting these things in a pastoral letter, could say: "From now on, one will better believe what the ancient documents of our church tell us about past jubilees; what did our fathers admire that we have not admired ourselves? Was there, at any other time, a more general movement, a more numerous influx, a greater eagerness? We would almost dare to say: Were there more signs of a living faith?... more conversions in all ranks of society?"

The glory of Our Lady of Le Puy was bound to reflect upon the bishop and the chapter who officiated daily in the presence of this powerful queen and formed, as it were, her court. Thus, several sovereign Pontiffs, such as Leo X in 1510, Paschal II in 1165, and Eugene III in 1145, were pleased to declare by express bulls that the Bishop of Le Puy was exempt from all metropolitan jurisdiction, a suffragan of the Holy See, to which he was to be subject forever like the primates and patriarchs; this is why we see several bishops of Le Puy being consecrated in Rome or elsewhere by the hand of the Pope himself.

To this first privilege, the Holy See added the *Pall ium*, a Pallium Honorific insignia granted exceptionally to the Bishop of Le Puy. n honorary insignia given at first by the sovereign Pontiffs to those they deemed worthy, and later reserved specifically for archbishops and primates. In 1040, Pope Leo IX wrote to the Bishop of Le Puy, Étienne de Mercœur: "We grant the *pallium* to your fraternity, out of respect for the blessed and glorious Virgin, Mother of God, whose memory is more loved and venerated in your church than in the other sanctuaries dedicated to her."

The kings of France, for their part, conferred upon the Bishop of Le Puy all the privileges in their power: they constituted him lord of the city and invested him with all the authority attached to that title.

The Revolution of '93 caused these prerogatives to disappear, and the see itself was suppressed. But, as soon as the Concordat of 1802 had restored its bishop to Le Puy, the Holy See immediately decorated him with the *pallium*, the only privilege that has remained to him from his glorious past.