19th May : Our Lady Of Flines
19th May
Our Lady Of Flines
Country :
Year : 1234
Margaret de Dampiere, relative of the Count Guy de Dampier presented in the year 1234 to Bernard of Citeaux an abbey near Douay. St. Bernard had recently established an order of nuns according to the rule of his order.
Five years previous to this, Peter, Archbishop of Rheims had dedicated the shrine to OUR LADY OF FLINES. This became a place of pilgrimage as a result of the miraculous cure of a child protégé of Margaret’s. The little one, unseen by Margaret’s coachman had been injured while playing about the stable-yard. The doctors pronounced her hopelessly lame for life. Margaret, however, confident in Our Lady’s intercession took the child to the neighboring shrine every Saturday and begged the Mother of God to be merciful to the child as well as to the grieving parents. After the fifteenth visit, the little girl said with a happy cry, “I can walk straight, see!” She jumped from the arms of her mother and proved that Our Lady had indeed helped.
The shrine became famous; many pilgrimages resulted, and, Mary proved the words of her loyal son Bernard, “Never was it known” to be true.
