STATUE OF THE VIRGIN MARY

Shortly after 1300, the crossbowmen of the Great Oath obtained a sandy ground outside the city walls to build a chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary. In 1348 a devout woman, Beatrijs Soetkens, noticed that a statue of the Virgin Mary in Antwerp was neglected, and brought her to Brussels. She takes the statue on a fisher boat which is pushed mysteriously along the rivers, even if its sails are not deployed. She is welcomed in Brussels by Duke John III of Brabant (see the wooden medallion in the nave on the first column on the left). The miraculous statue is entrusted to the crossbowmen’s chapel. The influx of pilgrims decided them to build a large church on the same location. This is the one you are visiting. In addition, every year they carry the statue in procession around the church (in Dutch “Ommegang”). – This is the name of the prestigious historical procession (1,400 actors) which still today, twice a year, leaves the Sablon church to reach the Grand-Place in Brussels. The miraculous statue was unfortunately burned during the wars of religion at the end of the 16th century. Archduchess Isabella, ruler of the Netherlands and daughter of King Philip II, offered the current statue. The cape of the Virgin of the Sablon is richly embroidered and is a gift from the van der Vaeren and Waucquez families. There are several capes which allow to respect the liturgical color of the year. Both the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus wear a crown.