OUR LADY OF ESQUERNES

Feast Day: June 11

The shrine of Our Lady of Esquernes is a half league from Lille, in Flanders, France. This image began to work miracles around the year 1162, and is still greatly reverred for the wonders which Our Lady kept working through her intercession.

   According to legend, while the one who painted this image of Mary was busy putting forth all his effort and talent to depict the Mother of God as beautiful as she is, the Devil tried to intervene. Our Lady suspended the painter in mid-air, disobeying the law of gravity, until the Bishop arrived to pronounce exorcism, and the Devil fled.

   It is known that the Cistercian Order was established by three Benedictine monks in the 11th Century, and that the new Order grew rapidly when Saint Bernard joined them. Soon, there were also many convents formed for women, and many of these houses were established in Flanders, France. One of those Cistercian convents is still located in Equermes, and there is possibility that this House is related to the image.

“Let all the children of the Catholic Church most dear to us hear these Our words and, with a more ardent zeal of piety, religion, and love, proceed to worship, invoke, and pray to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin, and let them fly with full confidence to this most sweet Mother of Mercy and Grace in all dangers, difficulties, doubts, and fears. For nothing is to be feared, and nothing is to be despaired of under her guidance, under her auspices, under her favour, under her protection, who, bearing towards us a maternal affection, and taking up the business of our salvation is solicitous for the whole human race, and, appointed by God the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and exalted above all the choirs of Angels, and orders of Saints, standing at the right hand of the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, intercedes most powerfully, and obtains what she asks, and cannot be frustrated.”

Pope Pius IX