Our Lady of Luxembourg: Our Lady of Consolation Is Celebrating 400 Years

Submitted by PAULA HARRIGAN

Holy Trinity Church in Rollingstone is blessed to have a very special statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg, also known as Our Lady of Consolation or the Consoler of the Afflicted, or, in Latin, Consolatrix Afflictorum. Our statue is based on the original statue of Our Lady of Consolation, which is housed today at the Notre Dame de Luxembourg Cathedral in Luxembourg City. The original statue recently celebrated its 400th Anniversary, on December 8, 2024.

The original statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg dates to 1624 when the Thirty Year’s War, plague and famine were wreaking havoc on the lives of the poor people of Luxembourg. At that time, Jesuit priest Fr. Jacques Brocquart served at the Jesuit College for high school boys in Luxembourg City. On December 8, 1624, Fr. Brocquart led his students in a procession through the narrow streets of the Luxembourg City fortress with a wood-carved statue of the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child. It was this precious statue that became referred to as Our Lady of Luxembourg or Our Lady of Consolation.

Fr. Brocquart placed the statue by a cross outside of the fortress wall, and he vowed to build a chapel on that site. A few years later, the chapel was completed, and the statue was placed in it. Soon pilgrims from Luxembourg City and throughout the region of Luxembourg and its borders came to the chapel to pray for the Consoler’s intercession and healing. Miracles and wonders began to happen in people’s lives through her intercession and, in 1666, the Consoler of the Afflicted was named patroness of Luxembourg City, and in 1678, she was named patroness of the entire Duchy of Luxembourg. Processions with the statue began to happen on a regular basis as the people of Luxembourg publicly demonstrated their devotion to her.

During the French Revolution, the original chapel was destroyed, and the 1624 statue found a new home in what is today the cathedral in Luxembourg City which now bears her name. Luxembourg and Belgic-Luxembourg immigrants to America brought along their love for Our Lady of Luxembourg and today there are 40 “public” replica images of her found in churches, chapels and shrines in the United States. Our statue is one of those sacred images.

As you gaze upon our statue of Our Lady of Luxembourg this year, wish her a happy 400th anniversary but most of all, come before her with your afflictions and concerns and pray for her intercession in your life.

If you would like to find out more about Our Lady of Luxembourg and the 400th Jubilee Celebration in her honor this year in Luxembourg, please feel free to email Kevin Wester, the Attaché for Cultural Affairs for the Honorary Consulate of Luxembourg in Wisconsin at kevin.wester14@gmail.com.

Paula Harrigan is a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Rollingstone, and an administrative assistant for the offices of the diaconate and vocations in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.