Notre-Dame-de-Vie / Our Lady of Life, Provence, France and Memorials of the Saints – 27 January

Notre-Dame-de-Vie / Our Lady of Life, Provence, France – 27 January:

The town of Mougins is really an ancient village located in the south of France. Only a short drive from Cannes, it is completely surrounded by dense forests and there are a variety of tall pines and other trees growing amidst the town’s buildings. Like so many other places in Europe, the village was once also surrounded by a stone wall set with strong towers, though most of those walls have long since fallen down. Many of the charming older residences, however, are still in use, opposite newer dwellings.
It was sometime during the 11th century, when a local nobleman gave the hill, which overlooks the village, to the Monks to Saint Honorat, who cared for the local populace until the time of the French Revolution. The Monks built a Chapel on the hill known as Saint Marie, though very little of that original structure still remains. The Chapel of Our Lady of Life, or Notre Dame de Vie in French, was built in 1646 and stands upon the former site of that much earlier Church.

If one were to visit the hermitage of Notre Dame de Vie, Our Lady of Life, they would find it situated on a beautiful site still overlooking the village, set in a long meadow bordered by two rows of giant cypresses. There is a natural peace and quietude, that seems to invade the soul at this place, which was once a site of many miracles.
The name of the first Chapel was changed from Saint Mary to Notre Dame de Vie, Our Lady of Life, when it was discovered that one could find a heavenly respite there. Notre Dame de Vie soon became famous throughout the area as a special sanctuary of grace, for if still-born babies were brought there, they would be miraculously brought back to life long enough to be Baptised during the Mass.
“At the present day, the chapel has fallen to ruin and a stone cross broken in half, rises alone amid the ruins but underneath these ruins there are subterraneous vaults and a stone altar, still tells where they still come to lay those little children whom death had smitten on the threshold of life and, who have been unable to receive the sacred sign which would have made them like unto the angels.”
“No sooner are they laid upon this stone, says the mountaineer who serves as a guide to the traveller in this dark crypt, than their eyes open again, a slight breathing escapes from their little lips closed by death, the water of Baptism flows upon their foreheads and then, they fall asleep again, to ascend to heaven.”
“By digging a little into the ground, the remains of these poor little flowers of humanity, which withered at the icy breath of death in the first hour of their morning, are found round about the altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, who raises up the little children to life, that they may go to Jesus Christ; that ignorant, but exalted tenderness of feeling which came to beg the miracle of Mary, interred them beneath her wing, that she might not forget them!“
“Let incredulity be indignant at this superstition of the heart; tender and pious souls will find in it, only a motive for gentle commiseration. No doubt, more than one mother has been deceived in thinking that she saw the cold lips of her child become reanimated with her kisses to receive the sacred water but. whoever should dare to advance that Mary cannot perform miracles as great when she pleases, would be, to say the truth, a bold mortal.” (*from Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the History of Devotion to Her, by Mathieu Orsini, translated from the French.)
The Chapel is home to an ancient statue in polychrome wood of the Virgin and Child. It is piously believed, that through this image, the Blessed Virgin has often restored to life children who had died without Baptism.
In 1730 the practice was prohibited for unknown reasons. There is a tomb in an adjacent enclosure that contains the remains of the tiny bodies of those who were Baptised and have passed to paradise.

St Angela Merici (1474-1540) (Optional Memorial)
Full Biography:
https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/01/27/saint-of-the-day-27-january-st-angela-merici-c-s-u-1474-1540/
AND MORE:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/01/27/saint-of-the-day-27-january-st-angela-merici-1474-1540/

Bl Antonio Mascaró Colomina
St Avitus
St Candida of Bañoles
St Carolina Santocanale
St Devota of Corsica
St Domitian of Melitene
St Emerius of Bañoles
Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulewicz/George Matulaitis MIC (1871-1927)
His Story:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/01/27/saint-of-the-day-27-january-blessed-george-matulaitis-mic-1871-1927/

St Gilduin
Bl Gonzalo Diaz di Amarante
St Henry de Osso y Cervello
St John Maria Muzeyi
Bl John of Warneton
St Julian of Le Mans
St Julian of Sora
St Lupus of Châlons
Blessed Manfredo Settala (12 Century-1217) Priest and Hermit “The Hermit of Monte San Giorgio”
St Marius of Bodon
Bl Michael Pini
St Natalis of Ulster
St Paul Josef Nardini
Bl Rosalie du Verdier de la Sorinière
St Theodoric of Orléans
St Pope Vitalian
—
Martyrs of North Africa – 30 saints: A group of 30 Christians martyred together by Arian Vandals. The only details to have survived are four of their names – Datius, Julian, Reatrus and Vincent. c 500 in North Africa.

Datius of Africa and 46 companions

Lucius of Africa and 40 companions