Global launch of "Pilgrim Virgins" was made possible by God's Providence

Summary:

After Edmond Fricoteaux's conversion and the installation of the statue of Our Lady of France in the town of Baillet-en-France on 15 October 1988, the project to send images of the Virgin Mary on pilgrimage throughout France and then around the world in preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 was born out of prayer at the feet of the Mother of God in Baillet and Lisieux. In 1994, all the bishops of France were asked to talk about this initiative. Thirty of them were visited, and their advice was incorporated into the project, which was finally launched on 8 September 1995, a year before Pope John Paul II came to Reims to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the baptism of Clovis I (c. 466-511, the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler and to convert to Christianity). Over the course of a year, 108 statues and icons of the Mother of God travelled from parish to parish throughout France, until September 1996.

At the end of this year of prayer, the "Pilgrim Virgins" were to set off around the world to prepare for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 in prayer, with Mary, as in a "New Advent", according to the wishes of Pope John Paul II. Everything seemed to be falling into place, since the Vatican had responded to a letter requesting a blessing of the statues and icons that would be sent to the first countries, by proposing that this be done by the Pope on Saturday 7 December 1996, during the praying of the rosary in Paul VI Hall, on the first Saturday of the month. But in France, many people were hostile to the idea, and the organisers recall in particular a meeting to review the year of prayer in France, where the opinions of some of the highest representatives of the Church in France were opposed to the idea.

In the run-up to the event, which involved 1,500 people from various countries carrying 250 statues and icons of the Mother of God, the organisers travelled to Rome three days in advance and, after checking that the organisation was in place, and having no special obligations, they had time on the morning of 6 December to visit someone recommended to them by Birthe Lejeune, wife of Professor Jérôme Lejeune: her friend Christine de Marcellus Vollmer, whom they did not know and who was the wife of Alberto Vollmer, then Venezuela's ambassador to the Vatican. The visit was very friendly, on a magnificent terrace overlooking the old city of Rome, and when the evening of 7 December was mentioned, Christine had the idea of calling her friend, Gladys Meza Romero, also Venezuelan, and wife of the Swiss Alois Estermann, captain of the Swiss Guards in Rome. Gladys and Alois are sadly known to have been murdered less than two years later, on 4 May 1998, in obscure circumstances, by a Swiss guard who had apparently gone mad.

The call of 6 December is very surprising, because when Christine Vollmer talked to her about the visit of the French organisers, Gladys Estermann remained silent for a moment, then said: "I can't not tell you, because you're our ambassador's wife: the French and their statues are going to be turned away. The order has already been given to the Swiss guards. There are only three or four of us in Rome who know about it." The organisers, who had expected anything but this, were shocked and very surprised! But what was to be done? After a few moments of reflection, it was decided to call Bishop Pavel Mária Hnilica, who was close to the Pope, to ask for his advice. As luck would have it, Bishop Hnilica was in Rome, available, and he made an appointment to meet in the early afternoon, explaining that he had to meet the Holy Father that very evening to work on an encyclical! The Pope was contacted incredibly quickly about this unexpected problem. The evening of 6 December passed without any news, but the organisers did receive a pleasant surprise that day: a fax reply from Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople, who agreed, after several months of waiting, to receive a delegation of "Pilgrim Virgins" in Istanbul, at Fener, for a solemn blessing on behalf of the Orthodox world. The news was immediately passed on to Bishop Hnilica and, on 7 December, the organisers learned that the Pope had finally agreed to meet them in St Peter's Square on 8 December for a blessing of the statues and icons just after the midday Angelus.

At the time, the news was greeted with great joy: 8 December was even a better day than the initially planned 7 December, and St Peter's Square was a thousand times better than Paul VI Hall! Later, the organisers learned that, during the apparitions at Montichiari, the Virgin Mary had asked that special prayers be held on 8 December from 12 noon to 1 p.m., designating this time as "the hour of grace for the whole world". It was precisely at this time that the 250 images of Mary were blessed in Rome, but the ceremony did not go exactly as the organisers had hoped. Alois Estermann pointed out that it was difficult to change the order given to the Italian police to prevent pilgrims from entering the hall, but he confirmed that, as St Peter's Square was a public space, no one could prevent them to enter on a Sunday. The Holy Father John Paul II, in fact, blessed the statues and icons in a special way at the end of the Angelus prayer, adding a quick second blessing to the usual one: "I bless all the objects of worship that you have with you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen" (ibid. 32 min), but nothing else! Not a word of encouragement for the Pilgrim Virgins movement, or for the 1,500 pilgrims who had come specially for this papal blessing! At the time, it was like a cold shower, a new lack of understanding. Why this restraint?

The explanation came a few minutes later. Bishop Hnilica and Wanda Poltawska, another close friend of the Pope, came to meet the organisers, and Bishop Hnilica explained all the events of the last few days. He first saw the Pope on the evening of the 6th. The latter had not been informed of the cancellation of 7 December, which had been decided by Cardinal Re, following a request from certain French prelates, and he expressed his disappointment. It was the pope who personally decided to solve the problem by meeting in St Peter's Square at 12 noon on 8 December. But a few hours later, Bishop Hnilica, who was very committed to seeking unity with the Orthodox, received a copy of the fax sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and said that he immediately went back to see the Holy Father on the morning of 7 December to tell him: "Most Holy Father, this is wonderful! The two lungs of the Church will be able to pray together around the Mother of God in preparation for the great Jubilee of the Year 2000. And on Sunday, you can give a very strong boost to all this!" But the Holy Father is said to have replied, with tears in his eyes, according to Bishop Hnilica's account: "I can't do it. The French bishops are against it. I'll bless the statues, but I can't do any more than that." In the end, the "Pilgrim Virgins" were blessed in Rome, quite providentially, but without the encouragement and words that many were expecting. A week later, on the other hand, in Istanbul, the Patriarch of Constantinople, freed from these constraints, declared during a very warm reception: "I bless with all my heart your efforts to bring the message of Christ and his Mother, the Blessed Virgin, to today's world and especially to young people" (ibid. 32min).

And so this movement of prayer and peace was launched in the West and the East, and spread widely over four years to 120 countries around the world, generating hundreds of thousands of prayer vigils, culminating in the"night of peace" organised in the "shepherds' field" to mark the 2000th Christmas in Bethlehem on 24 December 1999. It was out of all this that the Mary of Nazareth International Centre and the Association that now runs the 1,000 Reasons to Believe project were born.

Beyond reasons to believe:

We are all invited by Jesus to "take Mary into our homes" (Jn 19:27), like the apostle John did. One way of doing this, as proposed by the Confraternity of Notre Dame de France, is to place an image of Our Lady of France at the center of your home.

Going further:

In Mary's name This 52-minute documentary (In French) by Pierre Barnérias tells the whole story of the Pilgrim Virgins, from 1994 to 2000.

More information:

The illustrated book by the Confraternity of Our Lady of France: Notre Dame de France en images, tome 2, Éditions Téqui, 1997.