She saw the Virgin Mary appear on top of a dolmen

Our Lady of the Puy-en-Velay Shrine (southern France) is the oldest site of Marian apparitions in the country. At the beginning of the Christian era, the Puy was a small, unimportant city. For thousands of years, there existed a kind of dolmen or stone slab, supported by three or four lateral raised stones. In the first century the Gallo-Romans built a pagan temple (destroyed later) around it.

In the fourth century, a paralyzed Christian woman begged God to heal her. Suddenly, she saw the Virgin Mary on the dolmen. An angel told her: "The Queen of Heaven has chosen this place to make it her domain, to receive and to answer prayers.” The woman was healed on the spot.

She went to her bishop to tell him what had happened. After investigating, the bishop ordered the construction of the requested shrine, over the foundations of the old temple. The consecration of this oratory in honor of the Virgin took place on July 11th, the anniversary of the apparition and the day we still celebrate its dedication. Inside the oratory is a statue of the Virgin. Mary became the "mistress of the place" instead of the local pagan deity previously honored there. (1)

For centuries, it was one of the busiest shrines in the world: Six popes, fourteen kings, two emperors, heads of state, princes, soldiers, bourgeois, but also and especially the poor, came to the Puy-en-Velay to implore the Virgin. Today, this Marian shrine still attracts many visitors.

(1) Mother Anne Marie of Jesus Crucified, a stigmatized religious (1599-1653)

Source: In Altum