Church à Asté dans les Hautes-Pyrénées

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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Médoux, located in Asté in the Hautes-Pyrénées, is a former Marian sanctuary linked to two apparitions of the Virgin in 1588 to a shepherdess named Lilioye. These apparitions, which occurred during an epidemic of plague, trigger annual pilgrimages and the construction of a chapel, which became a major place of devotion until the Revolution. The site, combined with a spring and a chestnut tree, symbolized divine protection from plagues (pest, hail, floods).

In 1616 the Capuchins took charge of the chapel thanks to Suzanne de Gramont, Viscountess of Asté, who founded a convent there. The chapel was restored with a marble statue of Carrara (1.70 m), donated by the Gramont family and carved by Tommaso Orsolino, replacing a miraculous wooden statuette. Ambrose de Lombez, a Capuchin known for his holiness, lived there 15 years before his death in 1778. The Revolution dispersed the religious in 1791, and the statue was transferred to the parish church of Asté.

The sanctuary was also linked to legends, such as that of the statue miraculously returning to Médoux after an attempted flight by the inhabitants of Bagneres-de-Bigorre in 1562. The pilgrimages, motivated by healings and miracles, ceased with the Revolution. The present furniture, including the altarpiece of John II Ferrère (dynasty of local sculptors), dates back to the 18th century, after a fire in 1754. The adjacent caves, rediscovered in 1948 by Norbert Casteret, add a geological dimension to the site.

The etymology of Médoux remains debated: some see it as a reference to honey (Mellis Dulcis), others to the sweetness of the Virgin. The site, now integrated with the parish church of Asté, retains notable architectural elements, such as the southern gate in red and green marbles of Campan (1775), a witness of local art of the 17th–15th centuries.

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