Our Lady of Fourvière

Our Lady of Good Counsel was a small chapel that dated back to the year 840: it was later called Our Lady of Fourvières (from foro veteri), b ecause it was built where the ancient Roman city and its forum were, on the ruins of the colossal constructions made by the emperors. Enlarged successively over the course of the centuries, it was already a remarkable monument in 1793, when the Revolution strip ped it of its ornaments and sold it as national property.

After peace had been restored to the Church, Cardinal Fesch, having become Archbishop of Lyon, repurchased Fourvières, and, on April 19, 180 5, Pius VII, who had come to France for t he coronat ion of the Emperor, himself reopened the venerated sanctuary and was the first to offer the expiatory sacrifice there. From that day on, devotion to Our Lady of Fourvières resumed its ancient momentum; divine worship began its exercises there again, pilgrims came in crowds, love and trust enriched the pious sanctuary with various ornaments and gifts; multiplied and distinguished graces were obtained there, and the walls were covered with the ex-voto of gratitude.

This gratitude of the people of Lyon has been expressed in our day by a great manifestation. They had the generous thought of replacing the primitive chapel of Fourvières with a large and beautiful church that shows the protectress of the city to all eyes from afar. With this in view, they bought the neighboring properties to clear the chapel of buildings that hid it from view; they transformed the steep slopes of the hill into a verdant promenade, with easy access; they erected a monumental bell tower, at the top of which they placed a colossal statue of Mary, in gilded bronze, extending over the city her hands full of blessings.

Today, the gathering of pilgrims at Notre-Dame de Fourvières is prodigious. Approximately sixteen thousand masses are celebrated in the chapel each year, sometimes more than eighty in a single day. At least two hundred thousand communions take place there annually, sometimes many more. Twenty to thirty bishops come there annually; the number of other pilgrims is incalculable. The inhabitants of the city flock there first for the feasts of the Virgin, then whenever they experience or fear some misfortune or are undertaking some enterprise; finally and above all on January 1st of each year: on that day, people rush to Fourvières early in the morning, the chapel is opened earlier than usual, and the crowd rushes in. It is Lyon coming t o wi sh a happy new year to its good Mother, and to receive her blessing as a New Year's gift.

Excerpt from Notre-Dame de France, by the parish priest of Saint-Sulpice.