Every year, the French town of Marsanne commemorates an apparition of the Virgin

Our Lady of Fresneau Shrine is located in Marsanne, a small French town near Valence in southeastern France (Drôme department). Its feast day is on September 8.

This diocesan shrine is rooted in the locals’ Marian devotion to "Our Lady of Consolation", going back to the early Middle Ages.

Marsanne’s love for the Virgin Mary was given a fresh impetus after the Virgin Mary worked a miracle by restoring the sight of a young girl who was blind from birth, orphaned of her mother, daughter of a stone mason who was quite advanced in age. Mary told her that she would cure her if she would build her an oratory: "I want my beloved people to come in procession to this valley. Build a chapel that will remind men that they must pray to God."

The people’s attachment to the Virgin grew and spread after the miracle. In 1855 it reached a new level thanks to the vision and perseverance of Charles Bernardin de Montluisant who obtained - with the encouragement of the Curé d'Ars - the crowning of Our Lady of Fresneau by Pope Pius IX in 1855 (9th crowned Virgin in the Church) and built the current church, which was inaugurated in 1856.

More recently, Bishop Jean-Christophe Lagleize helped bring back the popularity of this shrine by restoring the smaller shrine, whose altar received the relics of Saints Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima, thus establishing a spiritual link with Our Lady of Fatima whose centenary was celebrated in 2016 and 2017.

The Marie de Nazareth editorial team