Fifth Sunday after Easter (Sunday before Ascension Thursday)
Notre-Dame du Château, Tarascon, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
The statue of Our Lady first came to Tarascon around 1348,
carried by pilgrims from Vallouise in the Briançon region, some 200 miles
northeast, who came to give thanks to St. Martha at her tomb for surviving
the plague. The people of Tarascon called the statue "La Belle
Briançonne," the Beauty of Briançon. Two years later, Waldensian
dissenters attacked the Briançon area, destroying churches, images, and
sacred objects. Imbert, the hermit in charge of the Virgin's statue, fled
with it from Vallouise to Tarascon, where he settled with it in a small
chapel adjacent to the castle on the Rhône River. La Belle Briançonne
soon became known as Our Lady of the Castle, as pilgrims flocked to the
chapel along the road through the Jewish quarter. By 1420, devotional
traffic so impacted the Jews of Tarascon that they offered to pay to have
Our Lady of the Castle moved to a new location. The Catholics agreed, and
ever since the beloved image has resided at a chapel five miles east of
Tarascon in the Alpilles range, near the village of Saint Etienne du Grès.
That is the story as told by the church and town of Tarascon (picture
source, www.paroisse-de-tarascon.com; www.tarascon.org), although the
Alpilles chapel has been dated to the 1100s, and there is some evidence
that devotion to Our Lady of the Castle is also that old (see "Alpilles,"
Randomania blog, www.randomania.fr/?cat=73),
although the statue does not appear to be. On the fifth Sunday after
Easter –
the Sunday before Ascension Thursday –
the Confraternity of
Priors of Our Lady of the Castle sponsors a pilgrimage to the sanctuary.
They carry the statue to the Royal Collegiate Church of St. Martha in
Tarascon, where it stays 40 days, dressed daily in a new gown, and taken
down from the altar on Saturdays so the faithful can hold it. On the 41st
day the statue returns to the mountain chapel.
Also commemorated this date:
 | Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Hanswijk, Mechelen, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium. Procession with floats, musicians, Blessed Sacrament. |
| Notre Dame des Vertus, Ligny-en-Barrois, Meuse, Lorraine, France (Our Lady of Virtues). Pilrgrimage, procession. |
| Notre-Dame-de-Foncourrieu, Marcillac-Vallon, Aveyron, Midi-Pyrénées, France. Local pilgrimage. |
| Unsere Liebe Frau, Wietmarschen, Grafschaft Bentheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. Traditional pilgrimage. |
| Madonna della Rosa, Santa Margherita, Genova, Liguria, Italy. Festa with blessing of roses. |
| Madonna del Giglio, Montefiascone, Viterbo, Latium, Italy (Madonna of the Lily). Festa: procession Sat. eve, mass Sun., marching band, fireworks. |
| Consolatrix Afflictorum, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Consoler of the Afflicted). Procession. |
| Nossa Senhora de Valverde, Cafede, Castelo Branco, Centro, Portugal. Main day of 3-day festa. |