Cult of Our Lady of Luxembourg in the United States

Our Lady as the protectress of the City and of the Duchy

The cult of Our Lady of Luxembourg, Comforter of the Afflicted, which was launched by the Jesuits in 1624 and led to the election of Our Lady as the protectress of the City in 1666 and of the Duchy in 1678, reflected a developing religious nationalism, expression to which was given in the yearly celebration of the octave of the third week after Easter, during which period pilgrims and processions from all over the country converged to the shrine of Our Lady of Consolation. It was indeed an embryo of national identity which crystallized through the cult of Our Lady of Luxembourg and in which the Luxembourgers were united as a national religious community.

The title Comforter of the Afflicted could not have been better chosen at a time when the country was in a state of utter desolation, the Thirty Years War was raging from 1618-1648, friend and foe alike devasted the country, plague and famine were omnipresent. Of the hundred years of the 17th century 71 were war years for Luxembourg and it can be said that this century was the worst in Luxembourg's history.

On Dec 8 1624, the students of the new Jesuit college, led by Father BROCQUART, one of their professors, carried on their shoulders and in procession through the narrow fortress streets a statue of the Virgin Mary, and installed her beneath a wooden cross, erected there the preceding year outside the fortress walls. This was the beginning of the famous pilgrimage of Our Lady of Luxembourg. The following year a chapel was constructed at this spot. However construction stopped in 1626 when a plague epidemic struck the country as well as Father BROCQUART. Close to death, he made a vow, should he regain health, to finish the chapel. Upon recovery the sanctuary was finished in 1628 and consecrated under the vocable of "Our Lady of Consolation". The pilgrimage immediately took unexpected dimensions. The number of pilgrims increased rapidly (30.000 in 1630), especially in 1636, when once again the plague struck violently throughout the province of Luxembourg. As the Thirty Years War dangerously approached the frontiers, when France entered the war in 1635, the fear and agony of the people grew day by day.

In 1666, Father Alexander Wiltheim, an eminent historian, and the curator of the chapel suggested that the Governor and the "Conseil Provincial" (the highest jurisdiction of the province) choose publicly the Holy Virgin as the patroness of the city of Luxembourg.

Procession 1781

On September 27 1666 the Governor, prince of Chimay, the president and the senators of the Conseil Provincial unanimously elected for themselves and for their successors "Mary, Mother of God, Consoler of the Afflicted, as the Patroness of the City of Luxemburg". On October 5th they were followed in this by the Magistrate and the clergy of the City and in 1678 the Holy Virgin was elected patroness of the whole Duchy of Luxembourg and County of Chiny. From this moment on the devotion and the pilgrimage became an important element of the religiosity of the inhabitants of the province of Luxembourg.

Glacis square chapel 1628

After the destruction of the old pilgrimage chapel at the time of the French Revolution, the statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg was moved to St. Peter church, today's Cathedral in Luxembourg City, the national center of marial devotion. Another center of veneration and pilgrimage, which also adopted Our Lady of Luxembourg under the vocable of Comforter of the Afflicted is Kevaeler in Germany, where in 1642 a copperplate engraving, representing Our Lady of Luxembourg, was installed in a sanctuary erected the same year.

Octave concluding procession 1893 (Drawing by Michel Engels)

Octave concluding procession 1893 (Drawing by Michel Engels)

The cult transposed to the united States

In regard of their numbers and their staying together in Luxembourg settlements it was only a matter of time for the emigrants to transpose the cult ofOur Lady of Luxembourgto the United States.

One of the early places of veneration is Dacada, on the border line of Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties, WI, where the Luxembourgers had their church since 1847, but for the marial feast they went as pilgrims to the shrine of St. Mary's in Lake Church, 6 miles away. However they wanted to have their own statue. Their wish became reality when in 1849 the widow Marguerite DEPIESSE emigrated from Messancy with her three sons. In the luggage she took on ship at Antwerp was a wooden statue of the Consoler of the Afflicted, which she concealed when during a heavy storm all passengers were requested to throw everything dispendable overboard. Grateful for the unexpected salvation she donated the statue to the St. Nicholas parish in Dacada, where it has been standing ever since.

Leopold, Perry County, IN, got its shrine after the Civil War.Three Perry County residents, native from Belgium, were imprisoned at the confederate prison of Andersonville, when they vowed should they survive, to travel to Europe for a replica of a statue of our Lady of Luxembourg, which, one of them, had seen there as a child. Lambert ROGIER went to Luxembourg in 1867 and upon his return enshrined it in St. Augustine church in Leopold. A marble replica can be seen in a small garden shrine near the church.

As the emigrants moved further west, traces of the cult of Our Lady of Consolation are also to be found there. The imminent arrival of a statue of the Consoler of the Afflicted in La Motte, IA in 1893 is qualified by Dubuque newspaperman GONNER as the first statue of the Consoler west of the Mississippi.

A major center of veneration is Carey, OH, which has the first church dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation. After the nomination of Father J.P. GLODEN,a native of Remerschen, Luxembourg as pastor of Berwick, OH, in 1873 and with the help of 14 families forming his community he started construction work and could celebrate the first mass by the end of November 1873. But it was a poor sanctuary. The walls were not plastered, wind and rain entered freely and the altar was a board table covered with cloth. Already in early years Father GLODEN had done a vow to dedicate his first church construction to the Luxembourg Consoler of the Afflicted, a wish which, supported by his community, was granted by bishop GILMOUR of Cleveland. The dedication ceremony took place on October 18 1874. Through active fundraising the church was achieved but for one thing, namely a statue of the patroness. Providentially a young man from Berwick prepared himself for a trip to Luxembourg to visit his parents. He got the mission from Father GLODEN to bring back a statue. With the help of a Luxembourg priest and other contributors the statue as well as the gowns could be bought in Luxembourg. Bishop ADAMES of Luxembourg, when he heard of this was very much pleased, even more, the donated to the church a Carey a precious relic: a little cross carved of the wood of the original statue in Luxembourg. As a further step Father GLODEN thought of inauguration a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Luxembourg in Carey. The 24th of May was chosen as the opening celebration and some 1000 attendants, reciting the rosary, came with the statue in their midst from Berwick to Carey, where the statue was installed, visible to all on the high altar. Several unexplained healings are reported to have happened through the intercession of Our Lady of Luxembourg. In order to fortify the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the pilgrimage, Father GLODEN founded a religious association to the honor of Our Lady of Consolation, whose members engaged themselves on their honor, to keep their love for the Consoler every single day of their life. To the intention of association he wrote an edification booklet: "Handbüchlein der Bruderschaft der Trösterin der Betrübten. Zum Nutzen und Gebrauche der Mitglieder derselben herausgegeben" published 1879 in Cincinnati by Benziger Bros. The consecration of a new fanion of this association drew some 8-900 pilgrims and 50 carriages to Carey and on which occasion Father GLODEN repeated the dedication ceremony by which 200 years ago Luxembourg elected the Virgin Mary as patroness. Father Gloden retired to Feulen in Luxembourg, where he died in 1919. His successors worked at the construction of a large parish and pilgrimage church. After the small mission chapel had been moved to its actual emplacement, Father MIZER had the foundations laid on which the pilgrimage church is now standing. In 1909 after two years of construction the crypt was consecrated. In the beginning this new uncompleted church was only used during marial pilgrimages. Finally the order of the Minorites who had taken over in 1912, brought over in 1918 the statue in solemn procession and had it set up in the crypt on its own altar for veneration.

On October 1919 bishop SCHREMBS of Toledo laid the foundation stone of today's upper church. The first mass was celebrated in this vast romanic building, representing a cross, on August 15 1921, the consecration took place in 1925. On Mai 11, the statue of our Lady of Luxembourg was finally transferred from the lower to the upper church and set on a special marble throne altar. In August 1937 between 50.000 and 60.000 people took part in the novene to the honor of Our Lady of Consolation. Facilities for pilgrims were created in 1939 in the vicinity of the church. An 80 acre piece of land was acquired and adorned with a way of the cross. It is there that on special feasts the processions are held. A home for pilgrims deserves to be mentioned where the faithful can get board and lodge. In 1936 a seminary "Our Lady of Carey" was contructed.

Even though pilgrims come at all times of the year, there are certains days when the affluence is considerably increasing. Every Sunday in May is Pilgrim day, when the masses of visitors go singing and praying in procession with the statue through the park. August is another marial month. On Assumption Day, August 15, in the jubilee year of the Immaculate Conception 1954, there were no less than 40.000 pilgrims on one single day. Plans for setting up an outside altar for divine service for the pilgrims date to the time before WW II. The original plan was changed insofar that the altar, the construction of which was finished in 1857, also served as War Memorial. The altar consists of Italian and American marble stone over which is a 75 feet high canopy. Atop the dome of this impressive construction, thrones the a 12 feet high bronze statue of Our Lady of Consolation. From this center of veneration the cult of Our Lady of Luxembourg spread into other Luxembourg settlements.

In 1871 a modest chapel was built in David City, NE, by thirteen Luxembourger which they caused to be dedicated to Our Lady, Comforter of the Afflicted. In May 1877 a fanion was embroidered by the carmelite nuns of Luxembourg and destined for the Holy Cross parish in Town Belgium, Ozaukee county, WI. For the inauguration ceremony a large procession was organized in which all the Luxembourgers in the area took part.

On September 18 1878 a statue of Our Lady was placed in the Loretto House at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. It is not astonishing that the veneration of Our Lady of Luxembourg is widely spread in the diocese of St. Cloud and especially in the episcopal church St. Mary's, where an altar in the crypt is dedicated to Her, as the bishop of St. Cloud P.W. BARTHOLME was of Luxembourg stock, just like his successor George Henry SPELTZ. When he visited Luxembourg in 1954, the jubilee year of the Immaculata, he was most interested in researching the history of the veneration of Our Lady of Luxembourg on the very spot. He participated in the Octave concluding procession and carried the Holy Sacrament through the street of Luxembourg-City. St. Mary's church in Remsen,IA, another Luxembourg settlement, has a also a statue imported from Luxembourg and donated by Mrs Catherine SCHARFF, Miss Anna KIEFFER ans Mrs Cornelius WOLLWERT. Today's church, which replaced a frame structure erected 1882, ruined by a cyclone in 1885 and rebuilt shortly after, was constructed 1902-1903 and consecrated by bishop SCHWEBACH, a native of Platen, Luxembourg.

The Sacred Heart church in Dubuque, IA has its own statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg, which was acquired in 1892 through the good offices of the Luxembourg Brotherhood of America, Section 20. A special altar for the statue was consecrated 10 May 1896, which was a donation from Father Jessing of the Collegium Josephinum in Columbus. The feast of Our Lady of Consolation is celebrated on the 5th Sunday after Easter, the day of the concluding procession of the octave in Luxembourg. After a high mass and a sermon to the honor of the Luxembourg Madonna, a procession is taking place on the sidewalks around the block in the vicinity of the church. Today the altar of Our Lady of Consolation, which is no longer the original 1896 one, is situated at the entrance of the church. An inscription under the statue reads: Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted, pray for us.

Another proof of the emigrants' love for our Lady of Luxembourg are the donation of three fanions, which are used in the yearly concluding procession of the octave. Thus the Dubuque Catholic weekly the Luxemburger Gazette made an appeal to the Luxembourgers not to neglect their duties towards Our Lady of Consolation. Even though the emigrants had not the possibility of being personnally present, they had the possibility to do it through intermediary. The Gazette callled for a subscription of 700 - 1000$
a) for the foundation of a high mass to be celebrated yearly during the Octave in Luxembourg to the honor of the Patroness of the old country and for the intention of all living and deceased Luxembourgers in the United States
b) to acquire a banner with the picture of Our Lady of Luxembourg which shall represent the emigrated Luxembourgers. If possible the banner should be carried during the concluding procession of the Octave by an American-Luxembourger.

Banner donated by the Luxembourg Americans

1966 Banner on display at the concluding procession of the Octave

A more recent testimony of veneration of Our Lady could be witnessed recently in St. Donatus, IA. Their church had a statue of the Consoler of the Afflicted already since the 1860', which disappeared when the interior of the church burned in 1907. A new statue, 5-foot-tall, hand carved in Luxembourg, was installed in 1908. The parish wanted to have a smaller statue to grace the new entryway and which could be carried during processions. So Judy NEMMERS of St. Donatus and friend Sue DEPPE of Bellevue travelled to Luxembourg in September 1986 in order to buy a statue, an anonymous donor had offered to pay. Father Edward PETTY had written a letter to Archbishop Jean HENGEN asking him to direct the two women to a religious goods store. Archbishop HENGEN personnally accompanied them to a store where they made their choice, but would not let the women buy. He donated it to the parish because he was familiar with St. Donatus' ties to Luxembourg. The statue was presented to the parish at a Mass on Sunday, October 12.

Chicago is also proud to have a statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg at the Carmelite convent in Des Plaines.

On August 12 1993 a copy of the 59 inches tall statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg, Consoler of the Afflicted, which had been standing over the Porte-Neuve fortress gate in Luxembourg since the 17th century, was presented through the intercession of the association "Lëzebuerger Kultur an Amerika" to the Holy Trinity Parish of Rollingstone, MN and dedicated. This gate was passed by thousands of pilgrims going to the chapel on the fortress glacis. Since 1666 the yearly inaugural and closing procession of the Octave with the Statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg moved through this gate.