The providential finding of the Mary of Nazareth International Center's future site

Synthèse :

After the French Revolution, which led to great persecution of the Church and many martyrs, the Catholic faith was reborn stronger than ever in France in the 19th century, and two thirds of the missionaries who set out to evangelise peoples who did not yet know Christ, were French. Many French congregations set up outside France, particularly in the East. The Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition, a congregation founded by Saint Emilie de Vialar (1797 - 1856), the Carmelites, the Poor Clares, the Fathers and Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the Assumptionists and the Sisters of Nazareth, whose vocation was to reproduce "the hidden life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Nazareth", settled in Nazareth.

When the latter were looking for a place to move in, in 1854 they found a beautiful space right next to the basilica, which, according to local oral tradition, was presented to them as "the place of the tomb of the Just One". For a long time, the sisters thought that this was nothing more than a story designed to make them pay a little more for the property. In 1884, while some work was being carried out on a cistern on the ground floor, the floor collapsed, revealing a lower level and unexpected new spaces. In 1936, the sisters asked the Jesuit Father Henri Senès, and then in 1937 the famous Franciscan archaeologist Father Bellarmino Bagatto, to begin exploring the entire site, which turned out to be quite extraordinary, with four levels, traces of Byzantine and Roman cross-occupation on the lowest level, and, still below, dug into the rock, an astonishing, vast tomb dating from the time of Christ and which an apparently very ancient tradition attributes to being that of Saint Joseph. Studies have continued with, more recently, the work of Professor Ken Dark, an archaeologist from the University of Reading in the UK, who has led a series of excavations and further studies since 2006, focusing his research on the dating and historical contextualisation of the structures and artefacts found on this site, confirming the chronological strata and historical significance of the site, including the possibility that this place is linked to the biblical figure of Jesus.

Independently of all this, between 1995 and 1999, on the initiative of the Confrérie Notre-Dame de France, founded by Edmond Fricoteaux, a notary from Saint-Denis, the "Pilgrim Virgins" movement of prayer and peace developed in France. This movement has spread to one hundred and twenty countries around the world, with the aim of closing the pilgrimage in the Shepherds' Field in Bethlehem on the night of prayer for the "2000th Christmas , in 1999.

All the "Christian Churches of the Holy Land" grouped together in theJerusalem Inter-Church Committee - five Catholic, five Orthodox and two Protestant - had agreed to take part in this night of prayer in the Shepherds' Field, on the very spot where, according to tradition, the angels announced the birth of the Saviour, in connection with the opening of the Holy Door in Rome by Pope John Paul II, and the opening of the Holy Door in Bethlehem by Patriarch Michel Sabbah, both broadcast on two giant screens.

In preparing for this night of peace, the leaders of the Confrérie Notre-Dame de France met by chance the mayor of Nazareth, who had the idea of creating a "museum" for the Virgin Mary in his town, for the year 2000, in collaboration with UNESCO. It was then decided that the delegations of pilgrim Virgins from eighty countries around the world who would come to Bethlehem for the 2000th Christmas would bear Marian gifts, "like the Three Wise Men", to offer them to the Virgin Mary and contribute to the creation of the "museum".  But everything was disrupted by a fundamentalist mosque project that a group of Muslims from outside Nazareth sought to forcefully impose a hundred metres below the Basilica of the Annunciation. Given the circumstances, the mayor abandoned his idea and suggested that we take it up again. But we had to rethink the concept of a "museum", which was not appropriate for the Mother of God, and above all find a place to house the future Marian centre.

Six months after the "Night of Peace", the Confrérie Notre-Dame de France published a book about the Pilgrim Virgins and the end of their pilgrimage culminating in Bethlehem, and a trip was organised to the Holy Land to thank all the Christian Churches for taking part in the event, to offer them the book and to ask them if they would be willing to work together to create an "International Mary of Nazareth Center" in the city of the Annunciation, to help pilgrims and tourists visiting the Holy Land better understand the history of all the historic religious sites they were going to visit. The pleasant surprise was that, following the success of the "Night of Peace", all the churches said they were willing to participate.

All that remained to be done was to find a site in Nazareth and plan the work that would be done there, but after a day of searching and visiting the few sites that the mayor had in mind in the densely built-up town of Nazareth, we were forced to conclude that nothing was suitable.

On the evening of 12 June, all hope of finding a suitable place to create a Marian centre seemed lost, and the project had to be abandoned... However, on our way back to the Hotel Galilée, feeling quite disappointed, we came across a group of French pilgrims who were going to visit the famous "Tomb of the Just", which we hadn't heard about, and, not knowing what to do, we decided to join them.

After descending the four levels of this impressive archaeological site, we arrived in front of this royal tomb, believed to be that of Saint Joseph. A little prayer spontaneously came to mind: "Saint Joseph, you who have sheltered Jesus and Mary all your life on earth, could you please find a suitable place for your wife?"

The following day, 13 June 2000, the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, after the 6.30 a.m. mass in the basilica, a sister stayed longer in prayer. As we started chatting, she asked us why we were there, and we told her our problem. She replied, surprised: "Are you looking for a place? Come and visit our school, St Joseph's, which is just next door. We've just made the decision to move and for a week now we've been receiving people proposing projects to set up a business or a hotel."

The school was right next to the basilica, in an ideal location, and the sister's name was Sister Antony. That day was her feast day and she belonged to the congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition, whose founder, Émilie de Vialar, a Frenchwoman, was related to Jacques de La Bastide, who was to become Mary of Nazareth's first president of (Association Marie de Nazareth), which was created a few months later.

Thus Saint Joseph providentially found the future site of the International Centre of Mary of Nazareth, which was the first completed project of Mary of Nazareth.

Au-delà des raisons d'y croire :

We should always remember to entrust ourselves to Saint Joseph for all our concerns related to "family, health, and work" and housing too!

Aller plus loin :

On the Mary of Nazareth YouTube channel, the documentary Au nom de Marie (In Mary's Name), which recounts the adventure of the Pilgrim Virgins, the "Night of Peace" and the ideas that led to the creation of the Mary of Nazareth International Centre.

En savoir plus :

• Article on the discovery of the possible tomb of Saint Joseph