Discussion:Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-de-Guérison

Notre Dame de Guérison sanctuary: English version

NOTRE DAME DE LA GUERISON SANCTUARY Notre-dame de Guérison is a santuary situated in the municipality of Courmayeur, at the foot of Mont Chétif, along the winding Val Veny road that leads to the Colle della Seigne Pass, the so-called Cremonis Iugum (Cremona Pass) used by the Romans in order to reach Gaul. It is the best-known sanctuary both in Italy and abroad, not only because of the surrounding landscape but because it is so easy to reach by car from May to November and above all, it is situated very close to an internationally-famous tourist resort, Courmayeur. The first exact dates regarding this place of prayer go back to 8th May 1537, when the name Berrier, the name by which the sanctuary was called, appears in a donation document. This word has Celtic origins and means “a pile of large rocks”. Around 1690 a statue of the Virgin in a protective niche was placed here. This miraculous statue became the object of a legal dispute among the priest, the diocesan administration and a Courmayeur family which came to an end with the destruction of the place of worship a long time after. The building was first re-built in 1781 by Mr. Jean-Michel Truchet and the chapel was consecrated after many misfortunes in 1792, when the French Revolution was in full force while as Ambroise Roux wrote « at the same time, on the other side of the Alpes, they were persecuting religion, churches were being destroyed and statues of the Virgin and Saints were being broken » (“en ces mêmes jours, au delà des Alpes on persécutait la religion, on détruisait les églises, on brisait les autels de la Vierge et des saints”) The Brenva glacier, which had been expanding since 1800, shifted the moraine that surrounded the sanctuary, causing it to collapse. . On 22nd May 1821 it was decided to rebuild the chapel, followed in 1840 with the addition of a room for the caretaker Laurent Girard, known for being one of the last Aosta Valley hermits. An increase in devotees lead to inept extension works in 1850 making the chapel unstable and subject to infiltration, so that “when it rains or snows, the wall next to the rock leaks and the chapel turns into a small lake”(“quand il tombait de la pluie, et à la fonte des neiges, la muraille du midi, du côté du rocher, laissait entrer l’eau de toutes parts et la chapelle devenait un petit lac”.) The present building, erected by the entrepeneur Filippo Franchini between July 1867 and July 1869, is characterized by a poor neo-Classical style, measures slightly more than 100 sq. metres and has a Latin cross plan. In the first half of the XX° century some rooms were added for the priest and a gallery to hold the votive offerings. The arches and walls of the sanctuary are covered with an interesting cycle of frescoes and three oils on canvas which were executed by the painter Giuseppe Stornone. This artist, who specialized in religious paintings of large dimension as well as vast cycles of frescoes, was influenced by the Italian baroque style. His works reveal the a connection to an intellectual sphere absolutely alien to the artistic unrest that gave life to that period throughout Europe, although it is possible to observe how the artist renewed his colour range compared to traditional methods, thus enriching his palette with soft, gentle colours. Many of the votive offerings refer to alpinists who have escaped danger while climbing Mont Blanc or crossing many of its passes. There is a silver miniature model of the ship “Stella Polare” which took the first Italian expedition to the North Pole. The survivors brought the model as a gift on 23rd June 1901 to Our Lady the Healer who had protected the dangerous expedition.Pope John-Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, during their summer holidays in Aosta Valley, visited the sanctuary on many occasions.