The Virgin of the Poor of Banneux

Bannux, Ardenas, Belgium · 15 January - 2 March 1933

Mariette Beco and the lady of light

On Sunday, January 15, 1933, at seven in the afternoon, Mariette Beco - an 11-year-old girl from a humble family in Bannux, 25 kilometres from Lieja - looked after her little brother looking out the window for his father. In the frozen garden, next to the garden, she saw a bright lady dressed in white with a blue belt and a golden rose on the right foot. The girl took the rosary and began to pray.

His mother, skeptical, told him he was the devil. But the apparitions continued. In total, the Virgin appeared to Mariette eight times, between 15 January and 2 March 1933. Always at night, always in the garden or next to a nearby spring.

The messages: "I am the Virgin of the Poor"

In the second apparition, the Lady led Mariette to a fountain on the way and asked her to put her hands in the cold water. He announced: "This source is reserved for all nations, to relieve the sick." In the third apparition, when Mariette asked him who he was, he answered clearly: "I am the Virgin of the Poor."

His messages were simple and direct: he asked for a small chapel, he invited to pray with fervor, he promised relief to the sick through the spring and he asked for prayer for all countries. Mariette, who had been away from religious practice for years, resumed the sacraments and received the first communion in the course of the apparitions.

Adoption of the Church and universal veneration

The diocese of Liège opened a commission of inquiry in 1935, whose work lasted until 1937 and whose report was sent to Rome. In May 1942, the Bishop of Liège, Louis- Joseph Kerkhofs, gave a first official approval of the apparitions. The Holy See issued a preliminary approval in 1947 and declared it final on 22 August 1949. Banneux is one of the few Marian apparitions of the 20th century with full pontifical approval.

Mariette Beco lived a discreet, married and mother of family life until her death in December 2011 at the age of 90. The spring marked by the Virgin continues to sprout; millions of sick and pilgrims from all over the world have visited Bannux since 1933, and numerous cures have been attributed to the intercession of the Virgin of the Poor.

"Virgin of the Poor, who pointed to the cold water of Bannux
for the relief of the sick of the whole world,
welcomes the poor today and relieves their pain. "