A French shrine dedicated to the United Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

One day around Christmas time in the year 800, in central France (Massif Central region), a shepherd leading his flock near the source of the Dureze river was greatly surprised to see a broom shrub in full bloom. After pushing aside its branches, he found a statue of the Blessed Virgin inside. The statue showed Mary sitting on a throne and holding her little child on her lap.

Everyone declared the discovery a true miracle. They informed the local priest, Fr. Rimaud, who happily brought the miraculous statue to his church in Saint-Christo. The people came in great numbers from all parts of the region to venerate it.

That very night, the priest locked the door of the empty church, but the next day there was a great commotion: the statue was gone, while the doors were still locked! They realized that angels must have taken their Queen back to the place where she had been found… they also observed that they had stopped on their way, as they noticed signs on a rock now called the Chair of the Virgin. They found her in the same shrub and understood that Mary wanted to be honored in that very place.

A chapel was quickly built there. Too quickly, in fact, for it collapsed one Christmas day after Vespers, without causing any casualties. (Cf. Book written by Canon Berjat, Notre-Dame de Valfleury, Lyon, 1931).

On March 19, 2021, in the Year of St. Joseph decreed by Pope Francis, the shrine was dedicated to the Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph and, on March 21, 2021, to the United Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in the presence of Bishop Bataille of Saint-Etienne, amid a fervent assembly of faithful.

Adapted from: https://www.notredamedevalfleury.fr/copie-de-le-sanctuaire