Montélimar

Votive Virgin of the Holy Cross (Sainte-Croix) church in Montélimar. The vow was made on August 15, 1944, by Father de Guillon in Our Lady of the Rose church, the property of the de la Bruyère family. After the Liberation, Jean de la Bruyère refused to allow the statue to be set up. It was sculpted by the Hartmanns, and kept in the Saint-Croix church, where it was consecrated on October 26, 1947 by the Bishop of Valence, Camille Pic and found a permanent place in the choir on June 12, 1949, in the presence of the Bishop.

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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", 1947, p.482 et 1949, p. 472 (MUV D 617/1947 - ADD AP 55/15 - 16)

Information: Jean-Noël Couriol