Albon

Votive Virgin in Albon, at the northeast end of the village of Saint-Romain-d'Albon. It is the work of the curate of Jarcieu, a parish in the diocese of Grenoble not far from Albon. It was consecrated on August 21, 1949, by the Bishop of Valence, Camille Pic, before an audience of some 800 people, according to aviators flying overhead. It is often referred to as "from the rue du Bac", an allusion to the reported visions of Catherine Labouré in 1830 and the engravings of the Virgin Mary on the "miracle medals" that were struck afterwards.

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There is dual origin for the statues of Votive Virgins, to be seen in a number of towns in Drôme. On July 9, 1944, in Die, Abbot Jean Bossan encouraged his parishioners to pray for the protection of the Virgin and to vow to build a statue in her honor if the town was saved. The Bishop of Valence-sur-Rhône, Monsignor Camille Pic, set in motion the movement in the département through the Religious Week of the diocese of Valence-sur-Rhône, Die and Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux on July 26, 1944. The vows would be taken on August 15, 1944, Assumption Day.

Making the statues was most often assigned to local or regional sculptors, such as Gaston Dintrat, the Hartmanns, refugees in Allex, Duilio Donzelli and his son Dante of Valence-sur-Rhône, the Bachini and Vermare shops from Lyon. The statues were of varied inspiration: crowned Virgins and child, uncrowned Virgins with or without haloes, Virgins of Lourdes, weeping Virgins, Virgins with a star, Virgins Our Lady of the Hearth. The list must be completed with statues from before 1944, that became votive Virgins afterwards.

Source: "Semaine religieuse du diocèse de Valence, Die et Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux", 1949, p. 375 et 383 (MUV D 617 - ADD AP 55/16)

Information: Jean-Noël Couriol