October 24
Notre-Dame de Pitié, Saint Martin d'Heuille,
Nièvre, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté,
France
On October 24, 1679, in the Nevers area of central France, people brought a lifeless child to St. Martin's Church. They set the little corpse at the foot of the altar of Our Lady of Pity, where the words AFFLICTIS SPES UNICA REBUS (only hope in all affliction) were carved below a pietà statue. Falling to their knees, they sang the Salve Regina: "Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope..." Suddenly the child came to life. Color returned to his face; he opened his eyes. He stayed alive long enough to receive the sacrament of baptism, assuring his family that his soul would go to heaven rather than limbo. The altar of Our Lady of Pity became a subject of pilgrimage until the French Revolution, when St. Martin's Church was partly destroyed.
In 1879, after doctors gave up on a young woman dying of peritonitis, her husband got the priest from St. Martin's to give her the last rites. Afterwards, the curé, who had been working on reviving devotion to Notre-Dame de Pitié, offered to say a novena to Our Lady on the woman's behalf. The next day, after the Salve Regina before the statue, the woman was better, to the astonishment of her friends and doctors.
In 1884, parishioners and visitors saw bloody sweat flow from the statue's dead Christ.
For many years St. Martin's hosted a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Pity on the third Sunday of September, near the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15).
Sources:
 | Jean-Emmanuel B. Drochon, Histoire illustrée des pèlerinages français de la Très Sainte Vierge, Plon, Paris, 1890, p. 365-7. |
| Ministère de la Culture (France), Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine (archives photographiques), www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/memoire_fr? (photo) |
Also celebrated this date:
| Notre-Dame du Rosaire, Uccle, Brussels, Belgium. Church blessed, 1937. |
| Notre-Dame des Doms, Avignon, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Monumental statue placed on basilica peak, 1859. |
| Maria Immacolata, Canicattì, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. Statue crowned, 1954. Festa December 7-8. |
| Virgen de Guadalupe, Pacasmayo, Pacasmayo, Peru. Statue crowned, 1954. Fiesta second Sunday in March. |
| Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Puszcza Mariańska, Zyrardów, Masovia, Poland. Congregation founded, 1673. |
| Notre-Dame de Lourdes, Pleujouse, Porrentruy, Jura, Switzerland. Chapel blessed, 1881. Fête March 25. |