Our Lady of Bethlehem

One can understand the impact that such a prodigy must have had. From all parts of Gaul, which had become Christian, people flocked to pray in the sanctuary of Bethlehem. When, around the year 434, Attila entered the country with his barbarian hordes, he consigned this venerated place to the flames, and more than three hundred and sixty people perished there, either buried under the debris of the building or massacred by the sword. But the piety of the people soon raised the religious sanctuary from its ruins, imperfectly at first, because they could do no better, then more magnificently as soon as they were able; and in 481, Our Lady of Bethlehem entered a new era of prosperity.

Clovis, altho Clovis King of the Franks, mentioned to date the existence of the church. ugh still a pagan, hearing so many wonders told of this sanctuary, had the curiosity to visit it. The hermits who were its guardians received him with the greatest honor; and the prince, touched by this warm welcome, showed himself benevolent toward them, even contributing from his royal munificence to the reconstruction and embellishment of the religious edifice. On the other hand, Clotil de, stil Clotilde Wife of Clovis I. l young, came there every year on pilgrimage, and the hermits, admiring her faith and piety, dared to speak to Clovis of the virtuous and beautiful Christian woman; they praised her so highly that the pagan king wished to meet her; the gaze of the proud Sicambrian soon discovered beneath the veil of her modesty the treasure of sweet virtues that distinguished her. He resolved to marry her, and soon the holiness of Clotilde came to adorn the throne of France. Clotilde dedicated her second son Clodomir to the Blessed Virgin, came to pray for him at Our Lady of Bethlehem when she saw him dangerously ill; and his recovery obtained, she had him baptized there at the foot of the altar with the permission of Clovis, who was still a pagan. The gratitude of the queen and the king, once he had become a Christian, was soon translated into numerous benefits, and among others by the construction of a vast church very close to the sanctuary of Bethlehem, which, under the invocation of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, became the church of the religious. This is undoubtedly not the church one sees today; time and wars have ruined it several times; but religion has raised it just as many times.

Under Clotaire II, Notre-Dame de Bethléem was no less favored. The prince himself came there on a pilgrimage. Adalbert, Lord of Etampes, restored the church as well as the monastery of the hermits, which had been damaged in several places by wars. Finally, at this time, the Abbey of Ferrièr es was definitively abbaye de Ferrières Burial place of Aldric and center of his cult. founded, that famous abbey which was illustrated in the following ages by so many virtues and talents, which counted thousands of students in its schools, which was for a long time a nursery for bishops, which had no rival but the great school of Tours, and which, finally, as rich in duration as in illustrations, subsisted until 1793.

Under Dagobert, the same protection was continued for the pious sanctuary. This monarch founded a mass there that was to be said in perpetuity on the altar of Notre-Dame, and which was called the royal mass. Furthermore, at his request, Pope Gregory II granted the abbey the privilege of bearing the arms of Saint Peter of Rome and several other notable favors, which were subsequently confirmed by Paul I, Eugene II, Alexander III, and Urban III.

Charlemagne, who had t he fam Alcuin Famous abbot under whom Aldric began his monastic life. ous Alcuin, Abbot of Ferrières, as his tutor, also showed himself generous toward Notre-Dame de Bethléem, and his successors on the throne imitated his example.

At the end of the 12th century, the religious, aided by such powerful protectors, had their church rebuilt, as well as the beautiful octagonal spire, one hundred and fifty feet high, which surmounted it and which fell in 1837. This magnificent monument completed, th ey invited Al Alexandre III Pope who proceeded with the canonization of Bertrand in Toulouse. exander III to come and consecrate it himself. This Pope, one of the greatest historical figures of the 12th century, deeming that a sanctuary so famous in the Christian world was worthy of such an honor, went in person to Ferrières. He performed the ceremony on September 29, 1163, and he drew from this holy asylum a softening of the evils that plagued his pontificate.

After three centuries of prosperity and glory, Our Lady of Bethlehem saw new days of mourning arrive. During the reign of Charles VII, the English, masters of the entire country, came to ravage Ferrières and burned the church, of which they left only the spire standing. But heaven did not leave this crime unpunished. According to a traditional legend, the English soldier who had set fire to the holy place suddenly felt himself devoured to the depths of his entrails as if by a mysterious fire whose ardor nothing could extinguish; and in the excess of his pain, he went and threw himself into a nearby well. In 1607, a prior of the monastery, wishing to verify the fact, had the bottom of this well sounded, and human bones were found there.

The church of Our Lady of Bethlehem, so often overturned and so often rebuilt, rose again from its ruins in 1460, thanks to the generous piety of Dom Blanche fort, Abbot of dom Blanchefort Abbot of Ferrières who rebuilt the church in 1460. Ferrières. This holy religious, whom his eminent virtues and especially his charity for the poor made venerable throughout the region, loved the Blessed Virgin so much that, when he felt close to death, he had himself carried to the foot of her altar and there breathed his last. He was buried there, and a richly sculpted tomb was erected for him. The stones of this venerated tomb having been preserved, it was restored in the main church of Ferrières, in the middle of the choir, where it is the object of the veneration of the people of the region, who regard this pious servant of Mary as a saint. But the church and the tomb were looted and profaned by the Protestants in the 16th century; and the revolutionaries of '93 completed the degradation, leaving only the walls of the church standing; and even those they left in a state of disrepair that compromised their stability.

After the revolution, this church was preserved as an annex to the parish church of Saint-Pierre; but it remained nonetheless the preferred church for the faithful; and, when in 1837 its beautiful spire suddenly collapsed onto its degraded base and crushed the church with its enormous weight, the whole town urgently requested, not the reconstruction of this gigantic and monumental bell tower which rose one hundred and fifty feet above the church roof; alas! the resources of the region would not have sufficed, but at least the restoration of the sanctuary where so many generations had come to pray. The worthy pastor, Father Champion, sharing the religious enthusiasm of his parishioners, opened a voluntary subscription. Prompt to respond to this call, the rich gave their money, the farmers offered their horses and carriages for all the necessary cartage; the poor, who had only their arms, gave their time, and one saw in a single day up to seventy workers, all animated by the same zeal, the same sublime selflessness, working with ardor on this work of restoration. In less than a year, Notre-Dame de Bethléem emerged from its ruins; and the faithful, gathered once again within its walls, were able to continue the prayers and chants of the ancient ages.

One admires there, to the left of the high altar, the tomb of Dom Morin, who was the architect of the two side chapels, as well as the altarpiece of the high altar and the decorations of the sanctuary, which are attributed to the munificence of Marie de Médicis. But what deserves much more attention and respect is the Black Virgin, having escaped the devastations of the English, the profanations of the Protestants, and the impiety of the revolutionaries, now placed in the side chapel, to the left of the sanctuary; a secular and miraculous Virgin, at whose feet numerous pilgrims, among others the inhabitants of Montargis, still come to pray today with a confidence that is justified and encouraged by the memory of the graces obtained throughout the succession of centuries.

Devotion to this religious sanctuary inspired, from the time of the Merovingian kings, a pious institution known as the Royal Confraternity of Notre-Dame, which lasted for centuries. However, time, which wears everything down, gradually undermined it, and it fell; and it existed only as a memory when Louis XIII, informed by Dom Morin, a monk of Ferrières, of the existence of the ancient confraternity, ordered that it be re-established and had its regulations approved by Gregory XV.

It was n ot only thi Grégoire XV Pope who elevated the congregation to the rank of a regular order in 1621. s pious association that attracted the faithful to Notre-Dame de Bethléem; it was also the numerous indulgences that Gregory XV had granted there at five main times of the year, namely: on the Sunday before the Ascension, and on the feasts of Easter, Pentecost, Saint Paul, and Saint Michael. One could not count the pilgrims brought to Ferrières on those days by the desire to gain the indulgences. But, alas! of all these pious practices, of all these ancient foundations, there remains only the pilgrimage of Whit Monday; then a solemn procession is held; the holy relics that escaped the various devastations of Notre-Dame de Bethléem and the church of the abbey of Ferrières are carried in great pomp, and the pilgrims are numerous. May heaven grant that the town of Ferrières, being today, thanks to the railway, only a few hours from the capital, may soon see a better future, and that these glorious antiquities, these ruins happily become the property of Mgr Dupanloup, Bishop of Orléans, may be consoled and see shine once again some rays of the beauty of Mgr Dupanloup 19th-century Bishop of Orléans and owner of the ruins. their former days!

Notre-Dame de France.