THE APPARITIONS OF OUR LADY OF GRACES AT COTIGNAC ON THE 10TH AND 11TH AUGUST 1519
In those times of unity and faith, when Europe was faced with great danger,
in the year of 1519, Provence had been part of the French Kingdom for 38 years;
the King being Francois 1st. The people were profoundly Christian. At that
time being faithful, responsible, hard working, and being Christian were one
and the same.
Sadly, in the same way as political Europe, the religious world itself was
to know confrontations and schism. Two years earlier, the monk Martin Luther
(1483 - 1546) had attached his 95 theses on the door of the Schlosskirke of
Wittenburg. In March 1519, he assured the Pope Leo X of his faithfulness.
Three years later, Germany was in turmoil and soon so was the best part of
Europe.
Our Lady comes to give strength before these trials... : On the 10th August 1519, a woodcutter, Jean de la Baume, went up the Verdaille
hill. He was alone. As usual, he started his day in prayer. As he got up from
his knees, he saw a cloud from which appeared the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus
in her arms, surrounded by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Catherine the martyr
and the St. Michael the Archangel. Our Lady was standing with her feet on
a crescent moon. She spoke to John in the following way: I am the Virgin Mary.
Go and tell the clergy and the Consuls of Cotignac to build me a church on
this place in the name of Our Lady of Graces, and that they should come in
procession to received the gifts which I wish to bestow. Then the vision disappeared.
Was this a hallucination? Doubtful or not, John kept the message to himself,
which entitled him to a second apparition of the Mother of God and of Graces!
The next day, 11th August, having gone to the same spot to finish his wood
cutting, he had the same vision and received the same request. This time,
he decided to obey and went back down to the village immediately.
The authorities and the villagers supported him unanimously. : John was known to be a sober man and the populace and their officials immediately
believed the story of this pious and serious woodcutter. A chapel was therefore
erected at the site of the apparitions (which they soon realised was inadequate
in size) and five years later it was decided to replace it by a sanctuary
approximately of the size of the present church. It was completed in 1537.
Providentially, an encouraging sign was to be given to the builders of Cotignac.
On the 14th of September, on the feast of the Veneration of the Cross, about
a month and a half after the apparitions, the building work had started, following
a procession of the entire community, clergy and officials at the head, as
the municipal archives relate: " ..and, beginning to dig the foundations
of the church, found buried large quantities of skeletons, nails, metalwork,
ivory boxes and a ball of fine crystal, which suggested that these were martyrs
who had been buried." This was possible as in the Roman Empire, under
which all the region was inhabited and put to use, numbers of Christians were
martyred for their faith. Provence was converted to Christianity in the 1st
Century and persecutions only ceased in the West in the year 311. The annals
of the Oratory report that when the tomb was opened several sick people were
cured.
Ecclesiastical approbation was rapidly obtained, as already, on the 17th March
1521, Pope Leo X issued a Bull according a series of privileges to the sanctuary
of Provence.
SIGNS : Miraculous signs only have meaning within God's way of teaching. They always
signify and bring home to us an aspect of the Gospel; Their occurrence revitalises
our slightly flagging faith.
Those gathered round Our Lady and the infant Jesus in the apparitions were
especially significant signs for the people of Cotignac. They were known to
them. Saint Catherine, martyred in Egypt in the IV th Century, whose remains
Saint Louis the King brought back to France, was very popular. (She was also
one of the voices Joan of Arc heard in 1431).
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153) was just as well known. He left unforgettable
writings about Mary and is known as Doctor of Mary Mediator. St. Michael Archangel,
who is especially spoken of in the book of the Apocalypse chap. 12, has been
honoured since long ago as protector of the Church as a family.
After the apparitions, the increasing numbers of pilgrims give an idea of
the number of answered prayers - as Our Lady had promised - so much so that
the municipal officers responsible had to control the pilgrimages (organisation,
reception etc.). In fact, from 1524, according to the village archives, they
had to name some officials ("obriers") in order to manage the site
of the pilgrimage. (The few priests who tried to be present were overwhelmed
by their own ministerial duties.) These lay people and municipal councillors
who succeeded each other, thus contributed to the spiritual radiation of Cotignac
for nearly three centuries, (until the revolution) with a probity and competence
which was equal to their faith and service to others. It is not surprising,
as at the time the politicians still realised how much the religious life
of the citizens contributed to the feeling of well being and to the common
good.
Collective graces. : It is especially the collective graces, that is to say, asked for by the whole population, consuls at the forefront, that the scanty archives of the XVIth Century mention. From 1522, the town of Aix approached Our Lady of Graces, as witnessed by a decree from the General Council of 24th December and stating "We will send a deputation and "obriers" to pray for the town in the chapel of the Virgin Mary of Graces, in the lands of Cotinato." An urgent reason motivated this approach, as with the town of Marseille, some months earlier: the menace of the plague. It seems that in fact the terrible scourge left these two towns for more than a century. Other municipal religious approaches to Our Lady were recorded from: Montfort, Brignoles, La Valette, Digne, Aubagne and others for very varied reasons.
The first sacerdotal society of priests of the oratory
in France is formed in Cotignac. : The need for a stable religious community was felt on the hill. From 1586,
the little community of priests, around Canon Rollin Ferrier, organised itself
into a sacerdotal society attached to the Oratory, which St. Phillip Neri
(1515 to 1595) had just founded in Rome. Some years later, in 1619, this first
house of the Oratory in France joined with the French Oratory, which meanwhile
the future Cardinal de Berulle had brought together in Paris. On the 10th
May 1629, Pope Urban VIII sent a further letter (or Bull) to the Fathers of
the Oratory; it was just a magnificent witness of Marial veneration: The Holy
Father mentioned in it the famous sanctuary dedicated to Blessed Mary "of
Grace or Graces", to which Christ's faithful, through gratitude or devotion,
come from almost every part of the world, because of the wonderful miracles
which God has worked there. But the most famous sign of the intercession of
Our Lady of Graces was still to come.
Our Lady of Graces and the birth
of Louis XIV
The apparition of St Joseph
To the present day
