Synopsis Chapter 11

 Discovering Europe, a synopsis

The shrines at Leopold and Carey had roots in Belgium and Luxembourg. Both statues came from Luxembourg. Luxembourg was the obvious next step to learn about Our Lady of Consolation.

In 1626 a Jesuit priest, Fr. Jacques Broquart, recovered from the plague after praying to Mary to intercede for him. In thanksgiving, he made a procession with a statue of Mary.  He gave that statue the title Consolatrix Afflictorum. An annual procession became very popular in Luxembourg and many healings were attributed to the intercession of Mary. Luxembourg became a popular pilgrimage site. Luxembourg and Belgium are neighbors, however, I wanted to know more about how Our Lady of Consolation became popular in Belgium. Information online was lacking. Until I searched under the title Consolatrix Afflictorum.

Searching for Consolatrix Afflictorum brought up a wealth of information, and led especially to Kevelaer, Germany. A great source of information came from Fr. Norbert Siwinski, OFM Conv, Ph.D. He had posted online a paper that had pages of footnotes and citations. 

Norbert Siwinski

It was in Polish, German, and Latin. Google translate was used to translate it to English. 

The shrine in Kevelaer has a direct connection to Luxembourg. The image in Kevelaer came from Luxembourg. Kevelaer was still not Belgium. At the western edge of Germany, it was close. The history of Kevelaer led to Scherpenheuvel, which was in Belgium. Oratorian priests from Scherpenheuvel were transfered to Kevelaer. The architecture of the shrine at Kevelaer was modeled after that of Scherpenheuvel. 

I got information about the history of Scherpenheuvel from Wikipedia and from an article by Prof. Luc Durloo, and Dr. Marc Wingens, Ph.D.  (and other contributors who discussed art). This article was found by searching in Dutch for Onze Lieve Vrouw van Scherpenheuvel and Onze Lieve Vrouw van Troost. Our Lady of Sharp Hill and Our Lady of Consolation. Other sources were also found by searching in the original languages. 

https://www.okv.be/artikel/scherpenheuvel

This had to be translated from Dutch. (Bits of information about Scherpenheuvel, Luxembourg, and Kevelear were gleaned from all over. These two links are listed because they were crucial in my continued discovery.)

Scherpenheuvel in turn led to the Jesuit novitiate in Nancy, France. Nancy was near Luxembourg. Remember my investigation started with a Jesuit in Luxembourg. Also, I learned about Montague wood from Scherpenheuvel and how it was made into statues that went throughout the region. 

Studying the history of the region helped. At the time period we will be looking at, the region was called the Spanish Netherlands. Kevelaer and Nancy were not in Germany and France then. Borders have moved in the last 400 years. This was also after the Reformation, during the 80 Years War and the 30 Years War, just before the Peace of Westphalia. 

Now there was a "triangle" of Marian devotion that seemed to be connected. Scherpenheuvel, Luxembourg, and Kevelaer. This is where we will dig deeper into the history in chronological order. Eventually, the Good Lord willing, I plan to go back even farther in history to Vilvoorde, Belgium and Turin, Italy and the Augustinians.