The Great Return of Our Lady of Boulogne (I)

Towards the end of the reign of Dagobert, about the year 633, an unmanned ship entered the mouth of the Liane River and docked where the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer is now located. On board was found a luminous statue of the Virgin Mary. A St Jerome version, manuscript Bible was found next to the statue. From the 13th to the 16th century, pilgrimages to Boulogne were extremely popular; the kings of France themselves came to pray before the miraculous statue. The wooden statue stood approximately three and a half feet high and showed the Blessed Virgin holding the Christ Child on her left arm. Unfortunately the statue no longer exists today. The popularity of Our Lady of Boulogne or Virgin of the Sea continued to increase until the year 1544, when the church was pillaged and the miraculous statue was taken to England and not returned for many years. The cathedral flourished until the French Revolution, when the 1790 Civil Constitution of the Clergy brought it under government control. The miraculous statue of the "Virgin of the Sea" was burned and reduced to ashes in 1793.