STORY OF OUR LADY OF LIFE

Feast Day - January 27

In Mougins, France, sometime during the 11th century, a local nobleman gave a Hill to the monks of Saint Honorat, who cared for the local people until the time of the French Revolution.

The monks erected a Chapel on the hill known as Saint Marie, though only a minute part of that original structure still stands.

The Chapel of Our Lady of Life(Notre Dame de Vie in French), was built in 1646, and stands upon the former site of that much old church. There is a natural peace and calmness that comes into the soul at this place, a site of plenty miracles.

The name of the first Chapel was changed from Saint Mary to Notre Dame de Vie, which means Our Lady of Life, when it was discovered that one could find a heavenly breathing space there. Our Lady of Life soon became popular in that area as a special sanctuary of grace, for if still-born babies were brought there, they would be miraculously brought back to life long enough to be baptised during the Mass.

"At the present day, the chapel has fallen to ruin, and a cross made of stone, broken in half rises alone amidst the ruins; but underneath these ruins there are subterranean vaults, and a stone altar yet tells where they still come to lay those little children whom death has smitten on the threshold of life, and who have been unable to receive the sacred sign which would have made them like unto the Angels."

"No sooner are they laid upon this stone, says the mountaineer who serves as a guide to the travellers in this dark crypt, that their eyes open again, a slight breath escapes from their little lips closed by death, the water of baptism flows upon their foreheads, and then they fall asleep again, to ascend into heaven."

The chapel houses an ancient statue of polychrome wood of Our Lady and Child. It is believed that through this image Our Lady has often restored to life children who had died without baptism.

In 1730 the practice was banned for unknown reasons. There is a tomb in an adjacent enclosure that contains the remains of the tiny bodies of those who were baptised and have passed to paradise.