Octave pilgrimage closing procession in 2024; Credit: SCP / Domingos Martins

The Catholic Church in Luxembourg is set to celebrate the 400th anniversary (jubilee) of the start of devotion to Our Lady of Luxembourg, Comforter of the Afflicted (i.e. the Virgin Mary).

The celebrations will officially open on Sunday 8 December 2024 - exactly 400 years after Jesuit priest Father Jacques Brocquart and his students carried a statue of the Virgin Mary through the streets of Luxembourg City. The jubilee will continue into 2025, which also marks the next Ordinary Jubilee for the Catholic Church (not only in Luxembourg).

Chronicle.lu spoke with Georges Hellinghausen, a Luxembourg clergyman, theologian and church historian, to learn more about the Marian Jubilee and the history behind it.

Chronicle.lu: We understand that the 400th anniversary celebrations already began with the Pope's visit earlier this year: please tell us how this came about.

Georges Hellinghausen: Pope Francis paid an official visit to Luxembourg on 26 September. After the official visits to the Grand Duke and to representatives of politics and civil society, a highlight was his meeting with the Catholic community in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Luxembourg [Notre-Dame Cathedral]. On this occasion, he opened the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the veneration of the Comforter of the Afflicted in Luxembourg. As a gift, he had brought with him the Golden Rose, a high and rare award left by the last popes at famous Marian shrines. Incidentally, the last Golden Rose to be awarded to a personality was Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, to whom Pius XII had this decoration presented by a Vatican delegation in 1956 for her services, particularly during the Second World War.

Chronicle.lu: Please tell us more about the celebratory event on 8 December.

Georges Hellinghausen: 8 December is precisely the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the devotion to the Comforter of the Afflicted in Luxembourg. On 8 December 1624, students from the Jesuit college in the city, accompanied by their prefect, Father Jacques Brocquart, carried the image of the Consolatrix Afflictorum [Virgin Mary] to the glacis field in front of the fortress. A chapel was soon built there to house the statue. And a pilgrimage to the Comforter very quickly developed there, which continues to this day in the so-called "Octave". On 8 December 2024, there will therefore be a solemn pontifical mass in the cathedral, after which the statue of Our Lady will once again be carried in procession to the glacis and placed there in the new glacis chapel for eight days of veneration, accompanied by various cultural and liturgical events.

Chronicle.lu: We understand that the 400th celebrations will conclude during the 2025 Octave (Oktav): please tell us what is planned in this context.

Georges Hellinghausen: The jubilee will run from 8 December 2024 to the end of the Octave 2025 on 25 May. Exhibitions, concerts, pilgrimages and various activities will mark the anniversary. Several book publications will focus on the Octave and its significance (history, votive altar, art). During the Octave, various churches in Luxembourg City will be included as additional pilgrimage destinations with specific themes. The final procession is particularly solemn.

Chronicle.lu: Please tell us about the significance of Our Lady of Luxembourg. What does she represent for the people/Archdiocese of Luxembourg? How has this changed over the past 400 years?

Georges Hellinghausen: The Comforter of the Afflicted was chosen as the patron saint of the city in 1666 and of the country in 1678. She gave strength to many Luxembourgers in all kinds of hardships of the time: plague, war, famine, uncertainties of faith. This is particularly evident in the Octave pilgrimages, which have been organised every year since then in the period after Easter. In its 400-year history, the Octave has known many high and low points, but has run like a thread through the history of Luxembourg. Today, it remains very much alive in the archdiocese of Luxembourg and in the border region, as pilgrims also regularly come to the Octave from neighbouring areas in Germany, France and Belgium.