Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"Kevelaer's Comforter of the Afflicted and her 'Thank you, Mary' wall"

Kevelaer, North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) (1641-1642)

In 1641, in the middle of the Thirty-Year War, a humble buhoner called Hendrick Busman used to stop to pray in an unpopulated place near Kevelaerin Lower Rhine. That Christmas, his wife Meslin He said he heard an inner voice that told him, in his dialect, that there he should raise a chapel. At that time, a woman linked to the soldier sold them a small picture of Our Lady of Luxembourg, Consoladora de los Afligidos, y el matrimonio reconoció en ella la imagen que Mechel había «visto» interiormente.

They decided to place the stampite in the designated place and build a small chapel. The priming Gnadenkapelle - chapel of grace - was built in 1642And the pilgrimages began at once. Over time, around the image a whole sanctuary grew: the chapel of grace, a lower basilica, ways of prayer and processions, to become one of the great Marian santuaries of Germany, recognized by the diocese of Münster, to which pilgrims from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and half of Europe come.

That one. wall of exvotes is the devotional heart of Kevelaer: tablets with cures, dates of accidents from which someone was unharmed, thanks of peasants, soldiers, sick and entire families. That exist and are ancient is fact; the supernatural interpretation of each case belongs to the faith of each pilgrim.

We must be strictly distinguished. It's documented the origin of the pilgrimage in 1641-1642, the names of the Busman marriage, the construction of the chapel and the consolidation of the sanctuary, as well as the multisecular tradition of devotees and attributed graces. It's Pious tradition, aceptada pero no demostrable en sus pormenores, la voz sobrenatural que pidió la capilla y la «coincidencia» entre la estampa y la visión de Mechel. Y a diferencia de Lourdes, no consta a catalogue of miracles approved by formal medical-canon processes. The RosaryOn the other hand, it is now deeply integrated into the life of the sanctuary: the pilgrimages often include their community prayer, proposed by the diocese next to the Way of the Cross and Eucharistic worship.