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Shrines
Belgium’s Catholic Shrines
North Americans will find shrines in every corner of Belgium.
There is a complete separation of church and state together with freedom of worship in Belgium but traditionally the atmosphere of the country is Catholic.
As an area from which so many Crusaders set forth in the Middle Ages, Christian devotion and pageantry still flourish.
Religious practice is closely bound up with local patriotism, as is much else in Belgian life and religious “Pilgrimage” observances cover nearly every week of the Christian calendar. But there are also occasions for religious pilgrimage with broader appeal for the devout, and a few shrines draw pilgrims from beyond the borders of Belgium.
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The Shrine of our Lady of Beauraing (Notre Dame de Beauraing) had its beginning between November 1932 and January 1933 when Our Lady appeared 33 times to five local children ranging in age from 9 to 15 years. From 1933 until the World War II, and even during the war, pilgrims have flocked to the little village of Beauraing. The Catholic Church historically prudent in granting recognition to an extraordinary manifestations granted final approbation for the title and special devotion to Our Lady of Beauraing on July 2, 1949 under the authority of the Holy office by the decree of Andre-Marie Charue, Bishop of Namur.
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The shrine of Our Lady of Banneux (Notre Dame de Banneux) also had its beginning in the 20th century with the 8 appearances of Our Lady to 11-year old Mariette Becco between January 15 and March 2, 1933. A small shrine was built there in response to Our Lady’s request and documented healings have occurred at the Spring where Our Lady instructed Mariette Becco to immerse her hands. Official Ecclesiastical approbation of devotion to the ‘Virgin of the Poor’ and of the reality of the apparitions was affirmed by the Pastoral Letter of His Excellency, Bishop Kerkhofs dated August 22, 1949.
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3. Our Lady of Foy
There is another old shrine, situated in the hills above the valley of the Meuse between Dinant and Rochefort, just north of the tortuously-twisting river Lesse.
In June 1609, a man who was planning to build a boat felled a tree on the estate of the Baron of Celles.
It turned out to be partly rotted, so he began to chop it up for firewood. What was his amazement to discover, in the hollow of the trunk, a lock of hair, some shiny stones and a figure of the Virgin composed of quartz-like substance. As the news got around, the Lord of Celles had an oratory built, which was replaced a few years later by the present structure, at the suggestion of the Prince-Bishop of Liege.
Located as it is in a popular vacation area, the shrine of Our Lady of Foy has many visitors throughout the spring and summer months, and is known as far away as South America. Of particular interest, however, is the manner in which the residents of communities in this region organize their pilgrimages on foot every year. These affairs have taken on something of the character of the marches militaires popular in other parts of Walloon, Belgium. ‘Soldiers’ in eighteenth-century uniform escort the Pilgrims, muskets are shot off, and arrival at the shrine is signaled by a cannon salute. Though this is pageantry today, it is a reminder of days when pilgrims really could not walk the roads without special protection.
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Of Belgium’s own Saints, none enjoys wider reputation than the patron saint of the Ardennes, St. Hubert, who is honored by hunters everywhere in the Catholic world. The tiny town in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, which is named after him, is the focal point of national pilgrimage on the Monday after Pentecost and on his name day, on November 3. The music of hunting horns enters into the ceremonies here, and there is a special blessing of saddled mounts as well as of their riders. Nor are the dogs forgotten in this hunters’ paradise deep in the Ardennes.
The list of pilgrimages could be extended almost indefinitely, but perhaps the foregoing is sufficient to alert Catholic visitors to something of the character of Belgian shrines and devotionalism.
info@saint-hubert-tourisme.be
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