11 APRIL OUR MOTHER OF FOURVIERE (FRANCE)

St. Pothinus erected the first oratory where Mary was invoked in Gaul. He brought from the interior of Asia a small statue of the Blessed Virgin, 

       which he deposited in a solitary and shaded crypt on the banks of the Saone, in front of the hill of Fourviere. He set up in this wild and secluded spot an altar to the true God, 

       and placed there the image, which was transferred later on to a temple built on the hill itself, where it took the name of Our Mother of Fourviere. 

       The veneration of the people surrounded this Church and it was a pilgrimage of great renown throughout the Lyonnais.




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