Our Lady of the Liebfrauenberg Roble (Gœrsdorf)

Marian devotion

Where is he?

Notre-Dame-du-Chêne, known in Spanish as Nuestra Señora del Roble, is located in Liebfrauenberg, over the term Gœrsdorf, in the department of Bajo Rhine, region of the Greater East, France. The map's coordinate corresponds to the cult building identified by OpenStreetMap as Notre Dame du Chêne. It is not presented as the exact location of each episode transmitted by tradition, but as the cartographic point of the historical place.

Documented history

The fact sheet of the heritage inventory of the French Ministry of Culture has placed the development of the pilgrimage in Liebfrauenberg since the 14th century. The first church was erected in 1384. The inventory also retains the memory that the Marian statue was related to the trunk of an oak and that the place reached notoriety by a healing attributed to Reinhard, Count of Deux-Ponts-Bitche. These references document the history of the building and the pilgrimage as it is collected by the inventory; they do not in themselves constitute a contemporary statement on the supernatural of healing.

After that fame, a three-ship voting church was built in 1518. The Reformation introduced in Gœrsdorf led to the destruction of the temple in 1580, from which the medieval bell tower remained. The inventory indicates that in 1684 the simultaneum, that is, a shared use, and that the Franciscan of Haguenau reconstructed the church in 1717 to restore the pilgrimage. In 1737 they were authorized to lift a convent and a hospice by the temple. The community had to leave the whole during the Revolution in 1791.

The property then passed through different hands. The inventory documents that the old convent was sold as a national good and bought in 1825 by the chemist Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, who transformed part of the place into a residence and laboratory. In 1955 it was acquired by a Protestant association, which made important works of renewal and adapted the whole to a function of encounter and reception. This evolution must be preserved in the chart: the place has a Catholic history of pilgrimage, but also a later history of various uses.

Tradition

The foundational tradition relates the image to an oak and to the name Liebfrauenberg, "Mount of Our Lady." The narrations of the place tell that the statue was in the hole of a tree and that devotion grew around that finding. The inventory of the Ministry of Culture reflects this tradition as part of the history of the pilgrimage and the explanation of the building.

Legend

The supernatural intervention in the origin of the image and healing of Count Reinhard belong to the tradition of the sanctuary. The property documentation retains the account, but does not provide here a specific medical file or ecclesial decree that allows it to be presented as a proven miracle. This is why the distinction between the historical existence of the pilgrimage, the memory of a healing and the legend about its supernatural cause is maintained.

Ecclesial State

It has a historic place of Marian pilgrimage and a building dedicated to Notre-Dame-du-Chêne, documented by the inventory of the Ministry of Culture. A formal decree approving an apparition or declaring supernatural the healing attributed to the count is not contained in the cowoven sources. The document therefore records documented Catholic veneration and tradition, without raising the story to an approved apparition.

Anecdotes and stories

The history of the whole shows how a place of pilgrimage can go through religious, political and social changes without disappearing from local memory. The preserved medieval bell tower, the Franciscan reconstruction of 1717, the convent and the hospice form different layers of the same landscape. The statue also had a history of protection and transfer: the parish memory of Gœrsdorf conserves that it was hidden during the Revolution and later passed to the parish church.

Whoever approaches today can contemplate a site linked to Marian prayer, but also to the heritage history of Alsace. Christian veneration does not turn wood, building or place into objects of worship: Mary is venerated and asked to intercede before God.

Prayer

St. Mary, Our Lady of the Roble, accompanies those who seek refuge, comfort and reconciliation. He intercede to Jesus Christ for the families, for the pilgrims and for those who bear disease or concern. Teach us to distinguish the truth from legend and to live a humble faith, rooted in charity. Amen.

Sources

• Ministry of Culture: Notre-Dame-du-Chêne pilgrimage church, Franciscan convent.
• OpenStreetMap: Our Lady of Oak.