Our Lady of Victories

This is the name given to a beautiful image of the Blessed Virgin which the French took from the Greeks at Constantinople in 1204 in a battle in which they scored a victory. There is also a famous and much-loved church called Our Lady of Victories in Paris. This church was desecrated during the French Revolution, but it was miraculously restored by Our Lady with the help of a simple French priest named Father Desgenettes, in 1836. "Consecrate your parish to the most holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary," he heard a voice say to him at morning Mass, when only ten were present. One evening at vespers, after he had obeyed Our Lady's orders, the hitherto empty church was filled for the first time in many, many years. It was one of the favorite churches of the Little Flower of Jesus. She visited it ten years before her death.