Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The Octave of Luxembourg: the keys to the city in the hands of Maria"

Luxembourg City (Luxembourg) (1624-1678)

In Luxembourg City, Our Lady, Consoler of the Afflicted, the "Consolatrix Afflictorum," patron saint of the city and the country, is venerated. This devotion is linked to the Jesuit Jacques Brocquart, of the Luxembourg College, who on December 8, 1624, led a procession with students of the Marian Congregation outside the city walls to erect an image of the Virgin. In 1628, a chapel was consecrated to venerate her, at a time when the primary concern was preserving the Catholic faith in the face of the Reformation.

The devotion grew strongly: as early as 1639, a first "Book of Miracles" was mentioned, containing graces attributed to the Virgin. The decisive moment came on October 10, 1666, when the city was solemnly consecrated to Mary under this title.

From those eight-day celebrations arose the famous Octave of Notre-Dame, which is repeated every year. In 1678, the Virgin was recognized as the patron saint of the entire country. Since 1794, the statue has been venerated in the former Jesuit church, now Luxembourg Cathedral. The Octave, moved to Easter time, grew until it was established in 1922 as a fifteen-day pilgrimage. Alongside the documented history (Brocquart, the Book of Miracles, the dates of the patronage), there is a beloved pious legend: that of a student who, in 1624, found a statue of the Virgin in the hollow of an oak tree by the Alzette River, an image that returned to the tree on its own. The sources that record it expressly refer to it as a legend.

Regarding the Rosary, sources about the Octave highlight the procession of the image, the Masses, confessions, and the consecration to the Virgin, but they do not document a specific original link with the Rosary. It is reasonable that it is prayed during the Octave, as in almost all major Marian pilgrimages, but there is no historical evidence that constitutively links this devotion to the Rosary.