Our Lady of Peace July 9

Traditional history has it that in the early 1500s in France, a certain Jean de Joyeuse presented the statue as a wedding gift to his young bride, Françoise e Voisins. The statue was known as the "Virgin of Joyeuse" and became a cherished family heirloom.

Around the year 1588, Jean's grandson, Henri Joyeuse, joined the Capuchin Franciscans in Paris and brought the statue with him, where it remained for the next 200 years. With the olive branch in its hand and the Prince of Peace on its arm, the statue was called Our Lady of Peace.

In 1657, the Capuchin community built a larger chapel to accommodate the growing number of faithful who sought her intercession. On July 9 of that year, before a large crowd including King Louis XIV, the papal nuncio in France solemnly blessed and enthroned the statue of the Virgin. Pope Alexander VII would later designate this date for the Capuchin community to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Peace.

During the French Revolution, which broke out in 1789, the Capuchins were driven from their monastery. They took the image with them to prevent its destruction by the ransacking rebels. When peace was restored to the country, the statue was taken out of hiding and entrusted to Pierre Coudrin, a priest in Paris.

In 1800, Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie became co-founders of a community of sisters, brothers, and priests—the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The members were also known more simply as the Picpus Fathers or the Religious of the Sacred Hearts. Coudrin gave the statue to Mother Aymer, who enshrined it in a convent chapel in the Picpus district of Paris on May 6, 1806.

Excluding its pedestal, the dark hardwood figure stands 11 inches tall and is fashioned in the Renaissance style of the period. Mary is depicted as a dignified matron, with the Christ Child on her left arm and an olive branch in her right hand.

Tradition has it that in 1682, merchants found an abandoned box on the shore of Mar del Sur in El Salvador. Unable to open it, they tied the box to the back of a donkey and went to inform the local authorities of their find. When they passed the parish church, now a cathedral, the donkey lay down on the ground. They were then able to open the box and were surprised to find that it contained an image of Our Lady holding the Child Jesus.

It is said that a bloody conflict was taking place between the inhabitants of the region; when they heard about the wonderful discovery, they laid down their weapons and immediately stopped fighting. This is why the image received the title of Our Lady of Peace, whose liturgical celebration is on November 21 in memory of her arrival in San Miguel.

The statue is a dressed wooden sculpture, with the national shield of El Salvador embroidered on the front of the image's white robe. Our Lady holds a golden palm in memory of the eruption of the Chaparrastique volcano, which threatened to destroy the city with hot lava. The frightened residents of San Miguel brought the statue of Our Lady of Peace to the main door of the cathedral, and immediately the flow of lava changed direction away from the city.

Pope Benedict XV authorized the canonical coronation of the image, which took place on November 21, 1921.