26th March : Our Lady Of Soissons
26th March
Our Lady Of Soissons
Country : France
Year : 1128
At a Benedictine Abbey of nuns in the city of Soissons, France, one of the shoes of Our Lady is believed to be preserved.
In the year 1128, a plague afflicted the city of Soissons. For six consecutive days the victims went to the shrine of Our Lady and called out for help. Mary appeared accompanied by the heavenly hosts. Immediately the people who believed, were healed.
The Bishop asked all who were healed to make a novena of thanks and to kiss the slipper of the Holy Virgin in the church. Boso, a rustic servant of one of the knights of Soissons, came to the church for the festival which was to follow the novena. While his companions gave gifts and talked of the slipper of Our Lady, he gave nothing and scoffed at the idea, muttering, “You are very foolish to believe this to be the Virgin’s slipper. It would have rotted long ago”. At these words, his blasphemous mouth was drawn toward his ear with such sharpness and pain, that his eyes seemed to slip out of his head. A tumor covered his face and made it unfit for human use. Roaring and writhing, he threw himself before the altar of Mary, begging for help.
The abbess Mathilda took the slipper and made the sign of the cross over the victim. Immediately he began to heal. The punished scoffer repented and gave himself up to the service of the Church of Soissons. Many—the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the paralytics, were healed at the shrine.
