Our Lady of the Treille

Marian devotion of Lille (Upper France)

La devoción a Our Lady of the Treille in Lille goes back, according to the local traditionThe 13th century. The most widespread reference is 1234 the beginning of the cult of a venerated Marian image in the city, associated with an ancient miraculous statue to which, according to the traditional narration, healing occurred. This explanation belongs to the field of devotional tradition and should not be confused with a complete documentary proof of the remote origin of the cult.

Main data

Origin and history

La devoción a Our Lady of the Treille in Lille goes back, according to the local traditionThe 13th century. The most widespread reference is 1234 the beginning of the cult of a venerated Marian image in the city, associated with an ancient miraculous statue to which, according to the traditional narration, healing occurred. This explanation belongs to the field of devotional tradition and should not be confused with a complete documentary proof of the remote origin of the cult.

La documented history of the present great church begins in the 19th century. In 1840 the inhabitants of Lille decided to raise a monumental temple dedicated to this advocation, and the construction of the church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille began in 1854. The building was conceived as a solemn expression of the Marian devotion of the city, and eventually became the cathedral of Lille.

The image and the sanctuary

The invocation is linked to a imagen mariana medieval and, according to the available disclosure descriptions, to a Miraculous statue venerated since the 13th century. The material, la iconographic typology or the detailed artistic features of the original image; therefore, such data should be given by no consta in a rigorous form.

The main sanctuary is the Basilica-cathedral Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille de Lillethe catedral-basílica de Lille, episcopal headquarters of the Archdiocese of Lille. It is located in the district of Old girl and occupies the place of an old mound of the castle. The sources consulted present it as a cathedral of Lille and basilica-cathedral, although it is not required in them if it also has a specific title as a diocesan or national sanctuary.

Sponsorship and coronation

Note--Dame de la Treille is venerated as employera of Lille. The sources consulted do not credit a national or diocesan patronage in a formal sense beyond its strong connection with the city and its mother church.

A solemn coronation in 1874: the source consulted states that in that year the great parties of the coronation were held Cardenal Regnier, Archbishop of Cambrai, acting as delegate of the Pope Pío IX. The documentation provided here does not appear in a sufficiently secure manner. canonical coronation with complete technical terminology, but there is a coronation ceremony in that year.

Party and devotion

La fiesta se celebra around 8 September, date associated with the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. The sources examined do not clearly contain large data on the flow, official schedule of pilgrimages or detailed popular traditions; these aspects should therefore be indicated as no consta with the evidence available.

What is clear is the character and religious rights from the medieval tradition to the monumental 19th century cathedral, the advocation has worked as a sign of Lille's spiritual identity. The permanent presence of the temple in Vieux-Lille and its status as a cathedral favour a stable devotion rather than merely occasional.

Link to the Rosary

The sources consulted do not contain a specific and exclusive historical relationship between Our Lady of the Treille and a fellowship, ninth or particular practice of Rosary. However, as a Marian advocation focused on the veneration of the Mother of God, the Rosary naturally presents itself as the prayer that accompanies this devotion: it meditates with Mary the mysteries of Christ and places the believing community under his intercession, in line with the Marian sense of the feast and the sanctuary.