OUR LADY OF GRACE

Day 310: March 18

The Apparition of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph in Cotignac, France



On August 10, 1519, Jean de la Baume climbed Mount Verdaille to chop wood. Pio the woodcutter, began his working day while praying. When he got up, to his surprise he saw in the cloud, the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in her arms. At their side were the Archangel St Michael and St Bernard of Clairvaux.

Our Lady gave this message to Jean: "I am the Virgin Mary. Go and tell the clergy and councilors of Cotignac to build a church for me here, under the name of Our Lady of Grace, and that we come in procession to receive the gifts I want to spread there.”

Jean thought that it was a hallucination because of the summer heat. He kept the message to himself. The next day, he arrived at the same place to finish cutting the tree. Once again, the same apparition occurred. Jean then rushed to the village to convey the message to the authorities of Cotignac.

On September 14, just a month after the apparitions, the first stone of the Sanctuary was laid. The entire village arrived on Mont Verdaille in procession with clergy and mayors.

After 20 years of marriage, King Louis XIII and Queen Anne of Austria had no children. It was then that Brother Fiacre, an Augustinian religious, had a vision of the Virgin Mary on the night of November 3, 1637. Our Lady spoke to him in these terms: "Do not worry, I am the Mother of God and the child you see is the Dauphin (dynastic title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France) that God wants to give in France. To emphasize this, I want the Queen to be warned to make three novenas in my honor, here is the same image that is found in Notre-Dame de Graces, in Provence and on the other church on the street."

Brother Fiacre ran and made these novenas in the name of the Queen: one to Our Lady of Grace, the next to Notre Dame in Paris and the last to Our Lady of Victories. Less than a year later, on September 5, 1638, Louis-Dieudonné was born.

On February 21, 1660, Louis XIV, accompanied by his mother, came to Cotignac to give thanks for his birth.

On June 7, 1660, the young shepherd Gaspar Ricard d'Estienne took refuge with his animals in the shade of the trees of the Bessillon pass near the village of Cotignac in the south of France. Due to the extreme heatwave (sultry heat), he was seized by a sudden thirst. Then a man of majestic appearance appeared to him and, pointing to a boulder, said: "I am Joseph. Lift up that boulder and you will drink." "I won't make it, it's too heavy." "You'll make it." The humble shepherd approached and managed to lift the boulder without any effort. Amazed, he realized that a spring of water began to flow in that place. Gaspar rushed to the spring to quench his thirst. When he got up, the mysterious man who had helped him had already disappeared. The shepherd ran to announce the news in the village, but found incredulity among the villagers. However, some people decided to follow him to see the alleged source. Upon arrival, everyone exulted with joy because the water had been flowing in abundance for three hours, in a place well known for its aridity. Even more inexplicably, the rock that Gaspar had moved so easily was immovable because of its weight. At that precise moment Gaspar understood, by divine inspiration, that strength had been given to him as a gift from Heaven and exclaimed: "The one who was there was Saint Joseph, he gave me strength!" Everyone knelt down and thanked St Joseph.

Subsequently, the healings obtained with the application of that miraculous water attracted the crowds to the Bessillon pass. The devotion to Saint Joseph, until then non-existent in the area, experienced an extraordinary expansion, spreading rapidly throughout Provence.

Then, with the donations received and with the approval of the bishop of Frejus, a chapel was built. The episode aroused the interest of the clergy and the French people. Cotignac soon became a place of worship of predilection for Catholic France.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"For every act of our spiritual life, we have the Virgin with us in a perpetual visitation, carrying out her motherly function."

(Comp. Shiju Chittattukara & Anil Akkara, 365 Days with St Justin Russolillo, Father Justin Vocationary, Florham Park, 2021, p. 118)

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