January 26, 2020

Dear St. Martin of Tours Parishioners,

Let me tell you the true story of Our Lady of Boulogne. One day, in the year 633, a boat without crew, sail, or oars arrived at the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France. The boat was empty except for one piece of precious cargo: a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in Her arms. At the same time, a stone’s throw away, Our Lady appeared to worshippers in a tiny chapel. She told them that angels had brought her statue to the port of their town so she might be venerated in that chapel and spread her graces to all who would honor Her and Her Son.

This was the origin of the very first Marian shrine in all of France and one of the most important sites of pilgrimage in Europe. Charlemagne, St. Louis IX, and St. Bernard de Clairvaux all traveled there to ask for graces.

Fast-forward 1156 years to the French Revolution. The sans-culottes seized the statue and burned it. Yet a rumor spread among the faithful that the statue miraculously survived. The French began to call Our Lady of Boulogne “The Lady of the Grand Return”: When the original statue of Our Lady of Boulogne returns to France, France will return to the Catholic Faith.

France still awaits the statue’s return, but a glimpse of her final coming was foretold in a marvelous way in 1942. During the depths of the Second World War when it appeared France would be lost to the Nazis, one pious soul was inspired to make four reproductions of Our Lady of Boulogne (see image above). These four statues were sent on pilgrimage to parishes throughout France. Extraordinary graces accompanied these four statues wherever they went. Once-despondent and lukewarm Catholic Frenchmen crowded their churches. From 1942 until the end of WWII, France seemed to have become Catholic again!

In the past 75 years, France has returned to the atheistic spirit of her revolution. (When times are good, religion often declines.) Just as the original statue of Our Lady of Boulogne was destroyed by fire, last year flames consumed the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral.  What will become of France?  That depends on the people of France, whether or not they will choose to honor Our Lady or choose instead to live without God. This is the choice every nation and every human soul has to make for itself.