Notre-Dame de Grâce (Icon)

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The icon of Notre-Dame de Grace
Notre-Dame de Grâce as patroness of the Archdiocese of Cambrai in the Cathedral of Cambrai

Notre-Dame de Grâce ( Our Lady of Grace ) is a Byzantine icon that has been in Cambrai since the 15th century . It represents Mary with the baby Jesus in the style of Eleusa and is one of the icons that, according to legend , were painted by the evangelist Luke himself.

description

The icon, 35.7 × 25.7 cm in size, shows, on a gold background , Mary in a deep blue robe with gold borders , which also covers the hair as a veil . The head is tilted to the left and hugs the child's cheek. The boy, held by his mother with both hands, is shown as a real toddler with a proportionally slightly too small head. He is wrapped in a pale red cloth that leaves his left arm and leg free, and he reciprocates the loving attention of his mother. With his left hand he grips the hem of her robe by the neck, with his right he grasps her chin.

history

The time and place of origin of the picture are not known. It is certain that it comes from the Byzantine Empire . After Rome , it probably came by Cardinal Jean de Brogny , who as senior officials of the Curia and as head of the Council of Constance had many connections in the Greek East. He left the icon to his secretary Fursy du Bruille , titular canon of Cambrai Cathedral, who in turn bequeathed it to the cathedral in 1450. Since then it has been exhibited in the old cathedral of Cambrai and was highly venerated as a miraculous image and pilgrimage destination . The dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold , the kings Franz I , Louis XI. , Heinrich IV. And Ludwig XIV. And the emperors Maximilian and Karl V visited them. Still Fénelon celebrated Archbishop of Cambrai every Saturday at her altar the Mass .

The Gothic cathedral of Cambrai perished in the French Revolution . The most important treasure recovered from it, besides the bones of the bishops, was the icon of Mary. After it was moved to the former abbey church of Saint-Sépulcre - now called Notre-Dame de Grâce - which was elevated to become a new cathedral - 100,000 people came together on March 24, 1804 to honor it. It got an elaborately designed neo-baroque chapel with an altar shrine, which is modeled on the westwork of the old cathedral. On May 14, 1894, she was commissioned by Pope Leo XIII. solemnly crowned .

Notre-Dame de Grâce and Bernadette Soubirous

Today, Notre-Dame de Grâce continues to attract the attention of prayers and tourists. This has not least to do with Bernadette Soubirous , the seer of Lourdes . At that time she rejected the statue of Joseph-Hugues Fabisch and all other attempts to depict the lady who had appeared to her in the grotto. But when she was shown albums with depictions of Mary from different eras and asked to name the most similar one, she is said to have pointed to a picture of the icon of Cambrai. André Malraux told this episode to Pablo Picasso , who, as part of his overcoming of “ illusionisticperspective painting, took it as an opportunity to study this and other icons in more detail. This is how the story became famous and was also received in Cambrai. The important Catholic theologian René Laurentin , who dealt with Marian apparitions throughout his life, reduces it to the verifiable core that Bernadette was shown an icon "by the hand of St. Luke" and that she has a certain resemblance to it, possibly out of pious humility have awarded. A one and a half meter copy of the icon of Cambrai was brought to Lourdes by the bishop and 3000 pilgrims from Cambrai in 2002 and there in the modern adoration church Ste. Bernadette placed opposite the apparition grotto. The icon itself was part of a major Byzantium exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2004 and was first mentioned in the New York Times report of March 26, 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Pillet, s. Web links
  2. Origine historique
  3. a b Icône de la Chapelle Notre-Dame de Grâce
  4. This paragraph after the thorough and carefully researched account by Pillet, see p. Web links. Bernadette's approval would have been limited to the sentence: "Il ya quelque chose, mais ce n'est pas ça, non ce n'est pas ça."
  5. De Cambrai à Lourdes
  6. Online version