Our Lady of Grace is a Title of Mary. The feast day associated with this title is February 7. The title of Our Lady of Grace is venerated in many countries throughout the world under various aspects. Many parishes, churches, and schools bear this name.
According to Rev. Johann Roten S.M., The title is French in origin, "Notre Dame de Grâce" and refers to an icon venerated in Cambrai.[1] It was acquired by Cardinal Jean Allarmet, who gave it to his secretary Fursy de Bruille, a canon of the Cambrai cathedral chapter, in Rome in 1440. De Bruille brought it to Cambrai, and in 1450 presented it to the Old Cambrai Cathedral, where it was installed with great ceremony in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity.[2] It was believed an original by Saint Luke, patron saint of artists, for which Mary herself had sat as model. Thus it was treated as a relic; God bestowing blessings on those that travelled to view it.[3] It is carried in an annually procession through the streets of Cambrai on the day before the Assumption (August 15).[4]
Images
A major shrine in pre-Reformation England was that of "Our Lady of Grace" at Ipswich, also known as "Our Lady of Ipswich". During the Middle Ages the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was a famous pilgrimage destination, and attracted many pilgrims including Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.[5] Only Walsingham attracted more pilgrims.
At the Reformation the statue was taken away to London to be burned in 1538, though some claim that it survived and is preserved at Nettuno, Italy.[6] Whether it was brought there by Catholic sailors, according to local legend, or simply sold by associates of Thomas Cromwell, the Nettuno statue appears to bear an English provenance.[7] The polychromed wooden statue of Our Lady of Grace is carried in procession every year in Nettuno on the first Saturday of May. The Anglican Church of St Mary at the Elms in Ipswich houses a copy of the Nettuno statue.[8] Every year parishioners from St. Mary's and the Roman Catholic Church of St. Pancras join in a pilgrimage to the former site of the Shrine, which was was just outside the city's west gate.
Miraculous Medal
One image associated with "Our Lady of Grace" is that displayed on the Miraculous Medal. Catherine Labouré, a French member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, reported that in 1830, she experiences a vision of Mary in the convent chapel on the Rue du Bac, in Paris. Labouré said that Mary appeared standing upon on globe with her arms outstretched. As if from rings set with precious stones dazzling rays of light were emitted from her fingers. When asked why all the rings did not emit light, the apparition responded that these were graces for which people forget to ask. The front of the medal depicts this image.[9][10]
^Harbison, Craig. The Art of the Northern Renaissance. London: Laurence King Publishing, 1995. pp. 159-160.((ISBN| 1-78067-027-3]]
^Byzantium, Faith and Power (1261–1557), 2004, Evans, Helen C. (ed.), Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, pp. 582–588 ISBN1-58839-114-0
^Dauvegis, Jean (1991). La Vie des Cambrésiens. Cambrai: Les amis du Cambrésis, p. 196
^John Wodderspoon|Wodderspoon, John]]. Memorials of the Ancient Town of Ipswich (Pawsey (Ipswich): Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans (London) 1850, pp. 75 et seq This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^Malster R. A History of Ipswich (Phillimore, Chichester 2000), p. 67
