The M de Marie oratory
Installed in 2024 on the shrine esplanade, the M de Marie oratory is a reminder that Pellevoisin is an important stage on the pilgrimage route proposed by theM de Marie association.
Here we can invoke Our Lady of France with the following prayer:
Mary, Our Lady of France, we entrust our hearts, souls, minds and bodies to you, so that you may be our Queen and lead us to God, our thrice Holy God.
Holy Mother of France, through us all your children, raise up our country by the holy tenderness of Jesus, by his endless mercy.
Grant that we may be messengers of his Sacred Heart, totally in love with his Will, so that divine peace and joy may overflow through us to all souls of good will.
Mary, Our Lady of France, we pray you, be Our Mother of tenderness. Amen.
Origin:
Le M de Marie was born in 2020 from the initiative of a couple, Monique and Frédéric Escalle, members of the Marie de Nazareth association (link to the website https://www.mariedenazareth.com/), who, following the terrible fire at Notre-Dame de Paris, suggested going on pilgrimage behind a statue of Notre-Dame de France (link to the website: https: //www.notre-dame-de-france.com/la-confrerie/).
The initial pilgrimage :
Observing that Mary had appeared in France on 5 successive occasions during the 19th century, the Escalle couple proposed linking these places of apparitions, thus tracing a large M across the whole of France. Maxime Bonnassies brought the project to fruition by creating the M de Marie association (link to website: https://mdemarie.fr/), and so it was that in the summer of 2020, two horse-drawn carriages set off from Lourdes (1858) and La Salette (1846), reaching Pontmain (1871) and Paris, rue du Bac (1830) respectively, before finally arriving at Pellevoisin (1876), having covered almost 2,000 km in 107 days, and taking in their wake almost 100,000 pilgrims.
A permanent pilgrimage :
Subsequently, the “M de Marie” association wanted this pilgrimage route to become permanent, like the Camino de Santiago de Compostela or the Tro Breiz in Brittany. A project was therefore launched to formalise the route by building small oratories along its entire length, at the rate of one every 10 km. At Pellevoisin, an oratory was installed in the sanctuary grounds on 25 February 2024, in the presence of Mgr Jérôme Beau, Bishop of Bourges.
The association is looking for volunteer villages to carry out this project, by installing oratories at stopping-off points that have not yet been provided.
