Our Lady of the Bildstein Visitation

Marian devotion

Where is he?

Our Lady of the Bildstein Visitation is venerated in the basilica of Maria Bildstein, in the municipality of Bildstein, Bregenz district, Vorarlberg State, Austria. OpenStreetMap's consultation identifies the pilgrimage church building as Sanctuary of Maria Bildstein. Therefore the point of the map is offered with building accuracy and not as a remembered or approximate coordinate of the region.

Documented history

The local history relates Bildstein's name to a Marian image of 14th century wood. According to municipal information, this image was exposed for public veneration in a small place of worship located approximately seven hundred meters below the present church. The influx of pilgrims and the offerings led to the establishment in the 16th century of a wooden chapel in the surroundings of the present temple. These data describe the historical formation of a place of worship; they do not in themselves turn the extraordinary accounts associated with the image into proven facts.

In 1629, the shrine and parish of Maria Bildstein set the episode that led to a decisive expansion of the pilgrimage. The current church began to be built in 1663. The first stone was placed on 12 April of that year by the auxiliary bishop of Constanza, Georg Sigismund Müller, and the temple was consecrated on 2 May 1670 by the same prelate. The outer form was later completed in 1692 with the completion of the two towers. The parish itself was not established until 1790.

The basilica keeps the call Gnaden image, the image of grace that occupies the center of devotion. The basilica itself explains that the temple received in 2018 the honorary title of lower basilica. This title and the continuity of public veneration document the ecclesial and pilgrim importance of the sanctuary, but should not be confused with a decree that declares a concrete apparition supernatural.

1629 Tradition

Maria Bildstein's tradition tells that Martin and Johannes Höfle, the children of the peasant Georg Höfle, were going through the Baumgartner Tobel on the way to the mill. In the journey they would have seen a white and luminous Marian figure, described in the story as glowing as the sun. The figure would have reminded them that his father had made a promise still unfulfilled and that it should be completed. By returning the boys and communicating it to Georg Höfle, he would have begun to fulfill his promise by raising a stone chapel for the image.

The tradition thus explains the relationship between the 1629 story, the chapel and the subsequent growth of the pilgrimage. The municipal source retains the episode as part of Bildstein's transmitted history, while the web of the basilica presents it within the spiritual memory of the sanctuary. In this sheet it is identified as tradition and not as an independent historical conclusion about the apparition.

Extraordinary legends and stories

The basilica also transmits that, after the first story, other Marian apparitions, answers to prayers and cures were told. The same explanation of the sanctuary calls legend to the account according to which Mary would have shown Martin the exact place where the church should be built. They are important elements for understanding devotion, but the sources consulted for this fact sheet do not provide a complete record that allows these cures to be presented as proven miracles or the apparition of 1629 as approved by the Church.

The fact sheet therefore retains the distinction between material history - the image, chapels, construction dates, consecration and basilica - the family tradition of the Höfle brothers and the legend about the choice of the site. No date, message, testimony or prodigy is added which is not included in the sources used.

Ecclesial State

Veneration allowed. Maria Bildstein is an active Catholic sanctuary and since 2018 the church has had the title of a minor basilica. The public veneration of the image is documented by the basilica itself and by municipal history. On the other hand, there is no specific decree in the verified sources for this sheet that declares the apparition attributed to 1629 supernatural. The state indicated therefore refers to Catholic veneration and sanctuary, not to an approval of the supernatural of the story.

The sanctuary and the pilgrimage

The construction of the church transformed the Bildstein summit into a pilgrimage center. The basilica explains that the increase of the faithful made the chapel insufficient by the mid-17th century and that the new temple was planned with both ecclesial and civil support. The stones necessary for the work were obtained in much of the sandstone outcrop located around the church. Around the work grew a core with inn and services for pilgrims, so devotion also influenced the economic life of the population.

Today the church remains a place of prayer and pilgrimage. The venerated image remains in the basilica and early Baroque architecture, along with the towers concluded in 1692, is part of the visible heritage of the sanctuary. A main party is not fixed here because it does not have a unique date in the archived sources for this lot.

Anecdotes and stories

One of the most significant scenes of tradition is Georg Höfle's reaction: the story presents the unfulfilled promise as the reason that gave way to a family devotion to a chapel and then to a church of pilgrimage. Another historical particularity is that the building of the temple was not an isolated episode of local life: around the work was consolidated a population center that welcomed those who came to pray before the image.

Prayer

Holy Mary, Mother of the Visitation, pray for those who pilgrim Bildstein and those who seek God with a sincere heart. Intercede to your Son for families, for the sick and for all who need hope. Teach us to fulfill our promises with humility, to serve our neighbor with joy and to always walk towards Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sources

• Municipality of Bildstein, history of the town (HTTP 200; image, tradition of 1629, chapels and evolution of the place).
• Basílica Maria Bildstein, imagen venerada (HTTP 200; story transmitted, image, chapel, church and site legend).
• Basílica Maria Bildstein, historia de la basílica (HTTP 200; construction, consecration, pilgrimage and minor basilica title since 2018).
• OpenStreetMap, Sanctuary of Maria Bildstein (HTTP 200; way 59994463, coordinates of the building).