Our Lady of the Holy Cord
Valenciennes, France (1008)
In the year 1008, the plague was ravaging Valenciennes. According to chronicles, terrified residents turned in prayer to the Virgin Mary.
The last day of August, the hermit monk called Bertholin was visited by the Virgin Mary, who asked him to gather people to pray near the church. After seven days, Our Lady appeared, accompanied by numerous angels, wearing a scarlet cord. She asked the angels to surround the city and its suburbs with this cord, then they all disappeared.
She soon reappeared to the monk and asked him to organize the next day, and every year afterward, a procession along the route of the cable. Contagion ceased and all patients were cured. The following year, the pilgrimage was established and is now celebrated on the second Sunday of September.
Text and image used with permission.
Source: "365 Days with Mary" by Michael O'Neill
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