How Mary showed her protection to a family fleeing the war in Algeria

On July 16, 1962, I was 16 years old. We were packing and about to leave beautiful Algeria, so dear to our heart. We had to carefully choose what to take, since we could only take a few things with us. We had to resign ourselves to part with many objects that held precious memories. The independence of Algeria from France had just been proclaimed, and we had to leave.

We were afraid that men from the FLN (Algerian National Liberation Front) might come into the house. They were often violent and we were afraid of being shot.

There was a lot of tension in the house. My aunt offered me some coffee. On the mantelpiece, she had a candle and a small statue of the Virgin Mary of Lourdes with Bernadette Soubirous. It had been a gift from Fr. Hudry, the parish priest of Saoula (a town south of Algiers), who had brought it back from Lourdes.

After she had finished coffee, my aunt stood up and suddenly froze. She was staring at the mantelpiece above the fireplace: the candle was gone, and in its place was a second statuette identical to the first! The candle had taken the shape of the statuette! The only difference was that it was all white. There were now two statues on the mantelpiece!

We were both astounded. At the end of October 1962, my entire family went to Lourdes to deposit this statue at the grotto. Mary protected us during that journey. We know that she will always be with us.

L.M.

Testimonial sent to Mary of Nazareth in February 2022