Notre Dame de Guérison sanctuary
Notre-Dame de Guérison (French for "Our Lady the Healer") is a Christian sanctuary situated in Courmayeur, at the foot of Mont Chétif, along the Val Veny road that leads to the Seigne pass, also known as the "Cremonis Iugum" (Cremona Pass), used by the Romans to reach Gaul.[1] It is well-known both in Italy and abroad, not only because of the surrounding landscape, but because it is very easy to reach by car from May to November and above all, is situated very close to an internationally famous tourist resort.
History
[edit]The first exact dates regarding the place go back to 8 May 1537 when the name "Berrier", the name by which the sanctuary was called, appears in a donation document. This word has Celtic origins and means “a pile of large rocks”. Around 1690 a statue of the Virgin was placed in a protective niche there. This statue became the object of a legal dispute among the priest, the diocesan administration and a Courmayeur family, which resulted in the sanctuary's destruction.[2]
The present
[edit]The arches and walls of the sanctuary are covered with a cycle of frescoes and three oils on canvas by the painter Giuseppe Stornone from Ivrea (1816-1890), who specialized in religious paintings of large dimension as well as vast cycles of frescoes and was influenced by the Italian baroque style.
Many of the votive offerings are for alpinists who have escaped danger while climbing Mont Blanc or crossing many of its passes. There is a silver miniature model of the ship Stella Polare, a former Norwegian whaler which, in 1899, took Umberto Cagni and his crew on an unsuccessful mission to reach the North Pole. The survivors brought the model as a gift on 23 June 1901, as thanks for the sanctuary's prayers during the journey. Pope John-Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, during their summer holidays in Aosta Valley, visited the sanctuary on many occasions.[3]
