May 15
Notre-Dame-du-Port, Clermont-Ferrand, Puy de Dôme, Auvergne, France
Clermont-Ferrand is located on a plain in the volcanic region of central France. Unlike most hub cities, it is not on a body of water. And yet for a thousand years Clermont's eastern district has been known as the Port. In the crypt of its Romanesque church of Our Lady of the Port, dating to the early 1100s, is an unusual Black Virgin, a polychromed walnut statue just under a foot high, carved by the Paquin family workshop in 1734. Mary cradles the child against her cheek, as in Eleusa or Tenderness icons such as the pre-Iconoclastic Glykophilousa of Mt. Athos; the Virgin of Vladimir, sent from Constantinople to Kiev in 1131; and Notre-Dame de Grâce, given in 1450 to Cambrai Cathedral in northern France.
Previous statues venerated here may have had different
poses. A 1400s document of the Chapter, the governing body of the collegiate
church, shows a Gothic-style standing Virgin with the Child in her left
arm.
This long-revered image is a 1734 copy of a statue from the 1200s, which was held to be a copy of an even earlier image—possibly going back to the shrine's foundation by St. Avit in the 500s, or possibly a copy of a Byzantine icon brought by returning Crusaders. It is unclear what happened to the previous statues of Notre-Dame-du-Port. Heads of the Virgin and Child dating to the 1000s were found during a 1903 renovation.
In 1614, snow and bitter cold enveloped the area without stopping from Martinmas (November 11) to Easter. By May, there were still no buds and no grass; famine loomed. The leaders and priests conferred. They asked the Chapter to bring out the image of Our Lady of the Port from the collegiate church. The four-hour procession took place on the morning of Ascension Day, May 15, 1614. Some 8,000 people followed the holy image and relics of saints around the city walls, chanting litanies. The next day, the weather grew milder, and in the following days, truly beautiful. To the joy of all, the harvests were excellent that summer and even more abundant the next year. The new bishop, Joachim d'Estaing, ordered an inquiry among the town notables May 6, 1616, after which he issued an ordinance declaring that the feast of Notre-Dame-du-Port would take place on May 15 in the parish and be observed as a day of rest.
The statue was crowned in 1875, and on May 15, 1881, Pope Leo XII declared the church a Minor Basilica. Catholics of Clermont honor Notre-Dame-du-Port with an annual novena culminating with a procession on the first Sunday after May 15.
Sources include:
 | Diocèse du Clermont, catholique-clermont.cef.fr |
| Ville de Clermont-Ferrand, www.ville-clermont-ferrand.fr |
| "Black Madonna Medal Collections Vintage Medals Part 1," eBay Canada Guides, reviews.ebay.ca.) (statue image) |
Also commemorated this date:
| Our Lady of the Harvest, Maronite Catholic Church |
| Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, Bouret-sur-Canche, Pas-de-Calais, France (Our Lady of Good Help). Procession to chapel. |
| Notre-Dame de Grâce, Cambrai, Nord, France. The fête celebrated on the nearest Saturday commemorates the icon's crowning in 1894. |
| Notre-Dame du Bocage, Le Reculey, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. Former pilgrimage to 1800s votive chapel. |
| Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Remède, Tarascon, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, France (Notre Dame de Frigolet) |
| Muttergottes auf dem Schönenberg, Ellwangen, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Hilltop church consecrated, 1729. Main pilgrimage August 15. Pilgrimage of displaced Catholics, last Sunday in May. |
| Madonna del Pozzo, San Salvatore Monferrato, Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy (Madonna of the Well). Apparition to Martino De Nava, 1616. |
| Medaglia dei Consacrati alla Madonna, Venice, Italy. Apparition to Sister Clara Scarabelli, 1950. |
| Madonna delle Grazie di Montenero, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. Painting found, 1345. |
| Madonna del Fiore, Acquapendente, Viterbo, Latium, Italy (Our Lady of the Flower). Festa features mosaic panels made of flowers. |
| Madonna di Galloro, Ariccia, Roma, Latium, Italy. Festa on Pentecost commemorates church consecration May 15, 1633. |
| Virgen del Rosario, Cirueña, La Rioja, Spain. Seated Gothic statue is caried to the chapel of the Virgin of Remedies. Fiesta September 8. |
| Virgen de las Candelas, Herramélluri, La Rioja, Spain. Procession to the Virgin of Power chapel; blessing of the fields with statue. |
| Virgen Peregrina, Leiva, La Rioja, Spain (Pilgrim Virgin). After mass in rural chapel, statues are carried to parish church. |
| Virgen de la Peña, Jaca, Huesca, Aragon, Spain, Ascara district (Virgin of the Crag). Romería on nearest Saturday. |
| Virgen del Rosario, Biota, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. Procession. |
| Mare de Deu de Les Salines, Maçanet de Cabrenys, Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Pilgrimages Sunday after May 15 & 1st Sunday in August |
| Nuestra Señora de la Paz, Ronda, Málaga, Andalucía, Spain (Our Lady of Peace). Town patron. Statue crowned, 1947. |
| Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, Los Realejos, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Procession on Monday after St. Isidore (May 15). Also September 8. |