Our Lady and the Burning Bush

The night of the Annunciation of the year 1400, some shepherds were attracted by a bright light coming from the nearby Chapel of Saint John the Baptist. As they approached the light they saw a thorn bush engulfed in flames, and they discovered a statue of the Blessed Virgin in the midst of the flames. The miracle continued all that night and into the next day, and news of the miracle spread quickly. The Bishop of Châlons, Charles de Poitiers, also witnessed the burning bush and the miraculous statue - both unaffected by the fire. When the flames died down, the bishop reverently took the statue and carried it in his own hands to the nearby Oratory of Saint John. On the very site of the miracle, construction of a church was begun for the enshrinement of the miraculous statue. Since the church was built so rapidly - in a little over 24 years - that a charming local legend claims that angels continued the work at night after the laborers had left for home. Our Lady of the Thorn became a place of pilgrimage very rapidly. Today, a minor basilica, the shrine proved to be so beautiful that the people considered it worthy place to venerate the Blessed Virgin. The flamboyant Gothic church boasts majestic great doors, a splendid rosette decorating the principle entrance and two chiseled stone spires, rises high and imposing on the plain in Champagne. It is a place of grandeur where Christian souls can expand in adoration of the Son of God, and many are the pilgrims of all descriptions who have visited the shrine over the years, including Saint Joan of Arc in 1429.