STORY OF OUR LADY OF BOLOUGNE

Feast Day - February 20

In the year 636, a small group of people standing on the seashore witnessed a ship without oars or sails came into the harbour of Bolougne. It finally came to rest by the riverbank, all by itself. One of the witnesses boarded the boat and confirmed that there was no one aboard, and that the vessel had no rudder, oars or sails.

The only thing found in the Ship was a statue of Our Lady. The witness took the statue and brought it ashore, and a voice was heard saying, "I choose your city as a place of grace."

The inhabitants of the city welcomed Our Lady to their city by erecting to her a shrine which reached its height of glory in the 12th Century.

King Henry VIII is reported to have stolen the statue of Our Lady of Bolougne and taken it to England. After many negotiations, the French managed to get it back. The image had been stolen and hidden many other times, but always saved and returned.

World War II almost completely destroyed the statue. In modern times, four exact replicas of Our Lady of Bolougne toured France for more than seven years as a symbol of French devotion to Mary. One of these was taken to Walsingham, England in 1948 and carried in procession by the “Cross-bearing pilgrimage” when many other statues and images of the Virgin visited England.

Bolougne was one of the most important Lady shrines of medieval France; among its noted pilgrims have been: Henry III, Edward II, the Black Prince, John of Gaunt.