Oratory of the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary
On the way down to the esplanade, next to the shop, is an oratory whose frescoes were painted in 2020 by the talented Orthodox priest and iconographer Father Jean-Baptiste Garrigou.
This initiative followed the crowning ceremony of the statue of Our Lady of Pellevoisin and the consecration of her diocese to the two united hearts of Christ and Mary by Mgr Jérôme Beau, Archbishop of Bourges, at the end of the pilgrimage of the Great M of Mary. The oratory was blessed by the archbishop on 10 January 2021.
” This fresco is not a teaching fresco, but a contemplative fresco, and we must enter into it by contemplating her who is at the very heart of the communion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and who is the first of all men to enter into this eternal communion. She is the first to show us what our vocation to holiness is “, said Bishop Beau, inviting us to enter into the mystery of the crowning of the Virgin Mary, so marvellously portrayed!
As we contemplate this fresco, we can make our own the prayer of Mary’s coronation:
Most good and merciful Father, before this image of the crowning of the Virgin Mary, we humbly beg You to engrave in our hearts what our eyes contemplate, so that we may always find in Mary a safe haven, and that through her the Holy Spirit may lead us.
May she help us to keep our faith strong, our hope firm, our charity fervent and our humility sincere, following in the footsteps of Estelle Faguette.
May we find in her strength in sorrow, dignity in poverty, patience in trial and serenity in success.
May she help us to live as artisans of justice and peace, for your greater glory.
And may we finally reach You in the heavenly city, where the Virgin Mary, Mother and Sovereign, watches over us and presents us with the Heart of Christ, source of life and holiness.
Brief description of the fresco:
In the upper, so-called angelic part of the fresco, that of the opening of the heavens, we see the angels glorifying the invisible God and the open Heavens.
Three rays emerge from this evocation of the heavens, as an allusion to the Trinitarian presence in the world, and reach the central part, while the angels’ wings touch the mandorla, depicted as a kind of bubble, a cosmic nebula, from which emerges the mystery contemplated as a gestation, a birth.
In the mandorla, Christ shows his heart with his left hand, while he crowns Mary with his right.
Below the mandorla are Mary Magdalene and John, contemplating as they witnessed the passion.
Behind Mary Magdalene is the consecration of the diocese by the archbishop of Bourges. Behind John stands a seraph, associated with Revelation, with the proclamation of the Word of God.
On the left-hand wall of the oratory, in continuity with the Coronation of Mary, a second fresco bears witness to the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Estelle Faguette.
Credit: Video of the Russian Orthodox Seminary of Épinay-sous-Sénart / Русская духовная семинария во Франции
