Our Lady of Beauraing

The story

On the evening of 29 November 1932, four children went to collect Gilberte Voisin from the convent school in Beauraing. They saw a Lady in white walking in the air above the railway bridge near the school garden. Over the next five weeks she appeared to them 33 times, mostly beneath a hawthorn tree in the garden.

Crowds gathered each evening while the children knelt and prayed the Rosary. Asked who she was, the Lady said: “I am the Immaculate Virgin.” She asked for prayer and for a chapel to be built, and in the last apparitions she showed the children a heart of gold, so she is honoured as the Virgin of the Golden Heart.

On 3 January 1933 she said farewell to each child. To Fernande she asked: “Do you love my Son? Do you love me? Then sacrifice yourself for me.” A chapel now stands by the hawthorn.

Key dates

1. 29 November 1932First apparition, above the railway bridge.
2. December 1932Almost nightly apparitions under the hawthorn tree.
3. 29 December 1932The children first see her golden heart.
4. 3 January 1933The last apparition and the farewell messages.
5. 2 July 1949The Bishop of Namur approves the apparitions.

Mary's message

• “I am the Immaculate Virgin.”
• “Pray, pray very much.”
• “I would like a chapel here.”
• “I will convert sinners.”
• “Do you love my Son? Do you love me? Then sacrifice yourself for me.”

The Church's judgment

After years of study, Bishop Charue of Namur first authorized public devotion in 1943. On 2 July 1949 he declared that the Queen of Heaven appeared to the children of Beauraing.