Une Minute avec Marie
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The Shrine of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Aide (Our Lady of All Help) in La Prénessaye (Côtes-d'Armor department of France) is the only Church-approved apparition site of the Virgin Mary in Brittany.
The story of the shrine begins with a miracle. One day in August 1652, Jeanne, 10 years old, deaf and dumb, was leading her sheep to pasture. The little girl was very devout. When she reached the meadow, she knelt down to say her prayers, when suddenly she felt a gust of wind at her back.
The little girl stood up and saw a beautiful lady, all dressed in white satin. Standing on a cloud above the ground, the Lady smiled and asked the child to give her a sheep.
“They're not mine, but my father's; if he says yes, I will give you one," replied the girl. “Go back to your parents,” the woman suggested. Jeanne went home and, for the first time, her parents heard the sound of her voice. “If this lady gave you back your voice, we'll give her the whole herd,” her father said. But when the girl returned to the meadow and repeated his words to the beautiful lady, she disappeared.
The next day, Jeanne, who could now hear and speak, met the beautiful lady again, who revealed: “I am the Virgin Mary, and I have chosen this place to be honored here. I would like a chapel to be built in the middle of this village.”
The little girl informed her parents. As proof of her claim, the lady pointed to a spot near the fountain where a statue was buried. As they dug, the villagers discovered a wooden Virgin and Child carved a thousand years earlier by an Irish monk. It was on this very spot that the chapel was built. It soon became a place of pilgrimage.
The Querrien shrine has since been dubbed the “Little Lourdes of Brittany”.