Little model boats hang from the ceiling and maritime paintings adorn the walls of the basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, which from the city’s highest hill overlooks the bay of Marseille, where sailing regattas are being held for the 2024 Olympics.
They’re votive offerings — some more than 200 years old — that residents of this Mediterranean port city continue to bring in gratitude to the Virgin Mary for everything from avoiding shipwrecks to successful rescues of migrants trying to make it to Europe on unseaworthy boats.
“Since its origins, Notre Dame de la Garde has been venerated by all seafarers,” said Jean-Michel Sanchez, the head conservator of the basilica’s museum. “Marseille was born of the sea.”
He estimates the basilica’s collection of ex-votos, as the offerings are called, at several thousands, including many in storage. And that’s after those predating the French Revolution were destroyed in the anticlerical violence that followed it.
Offerings shaped in reference to prayers answered – from babies to limbs, from vehicles to sports jerseys – are common across Catholic and Orthodox churches in Southern Europe especially, and in parts of the United States.
Marseille and the sea: A portrait of the millennia-old port city that is hosting Olympic sailing
The nautical motifs that dominate Marseille’s landmark church are inextricably linked to the city’s 2,600-year-old seafaring history. Continue reading
News category: Odd Spot.
