Dominique Peyramale

Dominique Peyramale

Marie-Dominique Peyramale (born January 9, 1811 in Momères, Hautes-Pyrénées , † September 8, 1877 in Lourdes ) was a Roman Catholic priest in Lourdes, France, during the Marian apparitions of the then 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

biography

Peyramale was born in 1811 as the fourth child of a Dr. Peyramale born in Momères. He was ordained a priest in 1835 and as a chaplain he was ordered to the parish of Vic-en-Bigorre . Two years later he took over the parish of St. John in Tarbes as pastor . From 1851 Peyramale was chaplain of the hospice in Tarbes. In 1854 he was transferred to the smaller Lourdes instead of Vic-en-Bigorre, where he gained a good reputation for his generosity. Arrived in Lourdes, Peyramale devoted himself to the plans to renovate the medieval parish church, which he wanted to expand. His project failed on the one hand because of the lack of urgency for a new building and on the other because of the costs involved.

Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the total of 18 apparitions of Mary took place in the “Grotto of Massabielle” outside the city. Marie-Dominique Peyramale, on the instructions of the bishop, did not go to the apparitions that happened to the girl Bernadette Soubirous. Nevertheless, he sent Jean-Baptiste Estrade to watch what happened. Because of a false report, Peyramale remained skeptical and hostile towards the girl for a long time, but he supported her at the decisive moment: he instructed Bernadette to ask the lady for her name. At the 16th meeting, the lady is said to have answered the question about her name with the words "Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou" ("I am the immaculate conception"). Since Peyramale assumed that the Soubirous, because of their inadequate education , could not know anything about the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary , which had been proclaimed only four years earlier, the priest ruled out false reports and began to defend the apparitions.

Marie-Dominique Peyramale was responsible for the beginning of the pilgrimage to and in Lourdes from 1862. The area around the grotto was acquired by the bishop and a chapel was built on the rock above. On August 4, 1864, the first procession went from the parish church to the cave, where Monsignor Laurence blessed the statue of the Blessed Virgin. In Peyramale's lifetime, the construction of the Basilica of the Virgin Mary also fell from 1866 to 1871. The parish finally lost control of the pilgrimage to the diocese.

The priest was in 1874 by Pope Pius IX. awarded the honorary title of Apostolic Protonotary . Peyramale was allowed to start building the new parish church in Lourdes, but he did not live to see its completion. Marie-Dominique Peyramale died on September 8, 1877.

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