Our Lady of All Joy, first superior of the Salesians

On May 10, 1684, the eve of the Ascension, John Baptist de la Salle called together twelve of his best disciples in Reims (northeastern France) and put them on retreat until Trinity Sunday. They were to deliberate on the appropriateness of forming a community and binding themselves to it by vow. In the end, the group agreed with their Founder, and on Sunday May 28, everyone gathered in the oratory on rue Neuve in Reims pronounced the vow of obedience. 

The following day, after a long night's walk, the thirteen pilgrims reached the Marian shrine of Liesse (Old French for “Great Joy”), some forty kilometers north of Reims. Here, before Our Lady of All Joy, they renewed their vows, implored the Mother of God's help, and chose her as the first Superior of their Institute. It was truly a pilgrimage of supplication and thanksgiving, as the disciples of John Baptist de La Salle placed themselves under the protection of Our Lady, proclaimed Head and Queen of their Schools. 

Later on, this devotional pilgrimage became quite common for the saintly man; when he visited the Brothers of Guise and Laon, he was careful not to pass through Liesse without paying his respects to their heavenly Protectress. When he arrived at the feet of Our Lady, he found it hard to leave.

 He would sometimes remain for three whole hours before the altar of the Madonna, after celebrating Mass in her honor. 

In the chapel later dedicated to Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, on the left side of the basilica, a marble ex-voto commemorates this 1684 consecration. Since then, the brothers have maintained a tender devotion to Our Lady of Liesse. In 1902, their Superior General, Brother Gabriel Marie, cured by the Virgin of an acute pneumonia, showed his gratitude by decorating the chapel and donating a stained-glass window depicting the consecration of the Institute in 1684.

Brother Genest J. Archer 

Published in Recueil Marial 1981 by Marist Brother Albert Pfleger