The Black Virgin of the Puy-en-Velay

According to the Canon Fayard, an historian, it was on July 11, in the third century A.D., that the Virgin appeared to a widow suffering from a high fever, on a dolmen in the Puy-en-Velay. The Mother of God asked the woman to go to Mount Anis, also called Corneille Rock, and to lie down on a megalithic flagstone. The widow stood up cured. The Virgin asked her to have a church built on the spot, which has become one of the oldest sanctuaries dedicated to the Mother of God. After a second miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary, Saint Vosy, a missionary from the Velay, had the first church finally built, at the end of 5th century. Soon this sanctuary became very popular, as proved by a text of Gregory of Tours in 591. The Emperor Charlemagne and many kings of France went there to pray to the Black Virgin. In 1051, Pope Leo IX wrote, "In this sanctuary on Mount Anis more than anywhere the Blessed Virgin Mary has received veneration, honor, and the love of a great many believers in the country."