Génissieux

Votive Virgin of Génissieux, in Frédéric Pénelon street. This statue was originally in the buildings of the Saint-Hippolyte patronage in Romans. When the patronage closed in 1969, the church became a city building, and the statue was stored in a warehouse. When a Genissieux family found it and gave it to the town, it was taken to the property where it is now  and consecrated as a Votive Virgin.

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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: Musée de la Résistance en ligne

Information: Jean-Noël Couriol