Mariette Beco

The Virgin of the Poor (Belgium, 1933)

An 11-year-old Belgian girl with a poor and unreligious family, to whom the Virgin presented herself as "the Virgin of the Poor," led her to a spring "for the sick" and asked her for prayer and a chapel.

Who was that?

Mariette Beco (b. 1921-2011) was an 11-year-old girl from Bannux, in the province of Liège, the eldest daughter of a very humble rural family with a very unpractical home. Before the apparitions he had left the catechesis; then he applied to the faith, although as an adult he lived always retired, married and dedicated to his family, far from all notoriety. He's not a Blessed or a saint.

The Apparition

Between 15 January and 2 March 1933 Mariette received eight apparitions from a luminous Lady. The Bishop of Liège officially recognized the authenticity of the apparitions of Our Lady of Bannux in 1949.

The words of the Virgin

La Señora se presentó con un título nuevo y entrañable: «Yo soy la Virgen de los Pobres». Dijo venir «a aliviar el sufrimiento» y «por los enfermos». Condujo a Mariette a un pequeño manantial cercano y le indicó: «Esta fuente está reservada para todas las naciones… para los enfermos». Pidió que se construyera una pequeña capilla y repitió la invitación a la confianza: «Creed en mí, yo creeré en vosotros. Rezad mucho». Un mensaje sin secretos ni anuncios: oración, consuelo a los que sufren y la fuente como signo de misericordia.

Anecdotes and afterlife

Mariette's father, once disbelieved, became a result of the facts. Mariette always fled from the protagonism; she sometimes visited the sanctuary anonymously. He died in 2011, at the age of 90, in a home for the elderly.

Fruit

The fountain of Bannux mana in abundance and the place became a great international sanctuary of pilgrimage, especially for the sick and poor, with numerous testimonies of healing and conversions.