L’Île-Bouchard The Church of Saint-Gilles

From December 8 to 14, 1947, when France feared civil war, four girls of L’Île-Bouchard said that the Virgin Mary appeared to them in the parish church of Saint-Gilles. She asked them to pray for France and for sinners.

In 2001 the archbishop of Tours authorized the pilgrimage, without ruling on the apparitions themselves. Pilgrims pray in the church before the statue of Our Lady of Prayer, set where the girls saw her.

The decree signed on December 8, 2001, by Archbishop André Vingt-Trois of Tours reads: “I authorize these pilgrimages and the public worship celebrated in the parish church of Saint-Gilles.” The title Our Lady of Prayer was given by Archbishop Louis Ferrand in 1966. The sanctuary is entrusted to the Community of Emmanuel, and its program lists daily Mass, the rosary, adoration and confession. The pilgrimage on December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception, opens the anniversary week, and the Assumption on August 15 is the sanctuary’s main feast.

The girls, Jacqueline, Jeannette, Laura and Nicole, were between seven and twelve years old. They saw the Lady, with an angel who said “I am the angel Gabriel,” in front of the altar of Our Lady of Victories, whose statue had been set up in 1888. She asked for a grotto with her statue and the angel’s. A gilded grotto on the left side of the church now holds both statues, with ex-votos on the wall beside it. Saint-Gilles was the church of a Romanesque priory. Its north side dates from the eleventh century, the façade and nave from the twelfth, and the choir is Gothic. Since August 15, 2011, it has kept relics of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Further reading: Marian Apparitions of France: A Pilgrim’s Guide.

• The church of Saint-GillesThe statue of Our Lady of Prayer, at the place of the apparitions.
• The grottoGilded, with the statues of Our Lady and the angel Gabriel and the ex-votos of pilgrims.
• The relics of Saints Louis and Zélie MartinKept in Saint-Gilles since August 15, 2011.

• December 8Anniversary of the first apparition

• Via ImmaculataeThe Way of the Immaculate, ten daysDay II, L’Île-Bouchard and Pellevoisin

About forty-five minutes by road from Tours.

• ChinonThe Royal Fortress of Chinon, about 9 miles as the crow flies
• ToursThe Basilica of Saint Martin, about 23 miles as the crow flies
• FontgombaultThe Abbey of Notre-Dame of Fontgombault, about 41 miles as the crow flies
• PellevoisinThe Shrine of Our Lady of Pellevoisin, about 48 miles as the crow flies