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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Benoîte-Vaux, located in the diocese of Verdun (Meuse), is one of the oldest Lorrain shrines, nestled in a wooded valley near the Meuse TGV station. Founded around 1147 by Bertauld, who offered his alleu de Faveroles to Bishop Alberon of Chiny to establish a monastery, the site owes its name to a legend: loggers discovered a statue of the Virgin after hearing heavenly songs. A hermit, Martin, was the first guardian, before the influx of pilgrims required a church dedicated to the Annunciation, several times reworked until the 17th century.

The sanctuary, protected by the Dukes of Lorraine like René II, housed a venerated statue, saved in 1638 by Barbe d'Ernecourt (the so-called "Christian Lamazone") during the Thirty Years War. The original statue, destroyed in 1793, was replaced after the Revolution. The pilgrimage, managed successively by the Premonstrates, the clerics of Our Savior, and then the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, is today animated by the diocesan clergy. The church, classified as a historical monument in 1983, preserves a rare jube and a Tuscan facade decorated with a tympanum depicting Christ giving the keys to St Peter.

The path of the cross, conceived in 1890 by Henri Chapu and completed by Désiré Fosse, consists of 14 monoliths extracted from the quarries of Euville. The miraculous source, moved in 1644, has been sheltered since 1846 by a neo-Gothic monument funded by Joseph Sauce, surmounted by a replica of the primitive statue. In 2004, an oratory dedicated to Notre-Dame du TGV was erected by the workers of the TGV East line, hosted on site, marking a continuity between tradition and modernity.

The hotel, formerly run by the Sisters of the Faith of Haréou, is now run by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Saint Mark. The annual pilgrimage, during the first week of September, perpetuates a secular devotion. The liturgical crowns of the statue (1875), now replicated for security reasons, recall similar practices in Lorraine, such as Nancy (Bonsecours) or Lyon (Fourvière).

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