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In downtown Lorient, France, a modest church has become the third shrine in Brittany. It was raised to the status of shrine on October 10, 2021, during a mass celebrated by Bishop Centène of Vannes.
The parish priest, Father Jean-François Audrain, priest of Saint Philip Neri, explains:
"Our church was already attracting many passers-by to the foot of Our Lady of Victory in one of the chapels. This Virgin has been venerated there for centuries."
Two historical events gave rise to the devotion to Our Lady of Victory. The first occurred a few years before the French Revolution, in 1746. About fifty English ships had landed by surprise on the southern coast of Brittany to take control of the port of Lorient. "The city eventually surrendered. The men went to raise the white flag but the women came to this chapel to beg the Virgin Mary to deliver the city," says Father Audrain. It was October 7, the day of Our Lady of the Rosary. Once the white flag was raised, the English were nowhere to be seen! The population immediately attributed the miracle to Our Lady, who has answered the women's prayers. Hence the name Our Lady of Victory.
Consequently, in 1867 Pope Pius IX proclaimed Our Lady of Victory the patron saint of Lorient.
The second miracle happened in 1943, during the Second World War. After the bombing of the city, the inhabitants retrieved the famous statue of Our Lady of Victory, patroness of Lorient, installed after the Revolution, completely intact amid the rubble!