Our Lady of Liesse

Today, December 2, we also celebrate the Marian feast day of Our Lady of Liesse, also known as “Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy.” This devotion to Our Blessed Mother originated in Egypt, and was carried to France. We recognize our loving Mother, Mary, as the Cause of Our Joy, for her role in the Incarnation of Jesus, and the grace she mediates from Heaven. Our Lady of Liesse, Pray for us!


Devotion to Our Lady of Liesse is based upon the story of three knights who brought back from Egypt a beautiful statue of Our Lady. As the story is told, in 1134, three brothers, knights from the French region of Laon, left on a voyage to the East. They were captured in Egypt, and held prisoner by the sultan. The sultan wished to force the young pious knights to renounce their faith, but they remained steadfast. Trying at all costs to make them apostatize, he sent his remarkably beautiful daughter to seduce them. Her name was Ismenia, and she engaged them in a conversation about the Gospel, certain that she would draw their attention away from the Lord and into licentious behavior.

The knights, however, in describing the beauty and grace of Our Blessed Mother, changed Ismenia’s heart. She requested that they carve an image of Mary for her. The knights agreed, praying to the Blessed Virgin to guide their hands, so that they might produce an image worthy of her grace and beauty.

But they did not have to carve anything. While they slept that evening, the Mother of God dispatched angels, bearing her radiant image, to the knights. When they awoke, they were amazed, and when Ismenia returned to the dungeons, she found them filled with a dazzling light and heavenly perfume emanating from the statue. She was instantly converted, and took the statue with her to her chambers. The knights praised the Lord, and His Mother, crying out “Our Lady of Liesse!”

The following evening, Ismenia heard the statue say: "Trust me, Ismenia! I have prayed to my Son for you. You will be his faithful servant. You will free my three beloved knights. You will be baptized and through you, France will be enriched by countless graces. Through you my name will become famous and later, I will receive you forever in paradise."

Doing as she was told, Ismenia assisted the three brothers in their escape, and fled back to France with them. On their journey, all four were overtaken by a deep sleep, and during that sleep, heavenly angels transported them to France. When they awoke, the three knights were in their country, near their castle in Marchais. Ismenia was baptized and they had a chapel built at the site where they had awoken, in honor of Our Lady of Liesse.

Since that time, countless miracles have been reported at the site, King Louis VII visited in pilgrimage in 1146, and since that time, Our Lady of Liesse has become a favorite pilgrimage destination of the faithful of Europe. Sadly, the original statue was destroyed during the French Revolution, but the medieval basilica at Liesse remains a center of devotion to the Mother of God. A new statue, created in the likeness of the original, was installed and crowned there in 1857.

O God, who brought joy to the world by the Incarnation of Christ your Son, grant to us, who honor his Mother as Cause of our Joy, the grace to follow your commandments and to set our hearts on the true joys of heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.