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In Venasque, southeastern France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region), the Shrine of Our Lady of Life dates to the beginnings of Christianity in the region. A Christian community already existed in Venasque at the end of the 4th century. This community was soon large enough to have a bishop, residing either in Carpentras or in Venasque.
In the 17th century a convent was built there for the Minim Friars.
Tradition says that in the 6th century, a monk-bishop who was a friend of Saint Caesarius of Arles, had three churches built: one dedicated to the Mother of God, another to the Trinity, and the third to Saint John the Baptist (the latter called the Baptistery of Venasque). The same tradition situates the church dedicated to the Mother of God on the site of a pagan temple, where the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Life stands today.
The French Revolution took its toll in Venasque: more than twenty people from this small town were executed, and the Minim Friars were expelled from their convent, which was then confiscated. In 1806, the parish priest of Saint-Didier, a native of Venasque who had escaped the revolutionary turmoil, bought back Our Lady of Life, and pilgrimages resumed.
In 1929, a lady from the Paris area moved to Our Lady of Life. She bought the place, thinking that the climate would be better suited to her granddaughter's health, but the latter died in 1931. This lady then offered the shrine and the property to Father Marie-Eugène, a Carmelite, "for a Carmelite project".
Thus, in 1932, Father Marie-Eugène founded the Notre-Dame de Vie Institute. Our Lady of Life is the house of formation and renewal for its members, who learn silent prayer there, at the school of the Carmelite saints: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Father Marie-Eugène died on March 27, 1967, an Easter Monday, a day on which he liked to celebrate the Easter joy of Mary, Mother of Life. His cause for canonization is underway.