An apparition near Valence, France, commemorated on September 8th

The shrine of Our Lady of Fresneau, in Marsanne, near Valence (France), existed in the Middle Ages under the name of "Our Lady of Consolation."

The love of the population of Marsanne for the Virgin Mary found a new impetus when the Virgin intervened to help a young girl, the daughter of an old stone cutter, who was blind and had lost her mother. She cured her, but in exchange asked for an oratory to be built: "I want my beloved people to come in procession in this valley and that a chapel be built here to remind them that we must pray to God."

The inhabitants grew even more attached to the shrine as a result of the miracle, but its popularity reached a new level when Pope Pius IX granted permission for the crowning of Our Lady of Fresneau in 1855, a petition supported by St John Vianney, the Curé of Ars.

The current bishop of the diocese, Bishop Pierre-Yves Michel, recently prompted the revival of the shrine after he restored the small church and placed some relics of St Francisco and St Jacinta inside the altar, thus establishing a spiritual connection with the 100^th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima this year.

The Mary of Nazareth Team