Our Lady of Laus

Our Lady of Laus refers to a long series of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a poor young shepherdess, Benoîte Rencurel, in the region of Laus in the French Alps, beginning in 1664 and, by tradition, continuing over some fifty-four years of her life. The Virgin led Benoîte to a valley and asked that a church be built there, promising it would be a place of the conversion of sinners, and Benoîte devoted the rest of her long life to prayer, penance, and the service of the pilgrims who came.

Laus became renowned above all as a place of reconciliation and the sacrament of confession, where many hardened sinners were moved to repentance, and a fragrant oil from the shrine's lamp was associated with healings. Though its fame was long chiefly local, the apparitions were formally recognized and approved by the Church in 2008, after careful examination, making Laus one of the officially approved Marian shrines of France. The place remains a center of pilgrimage and of the ministry of mercy and reconciliation.