Given its grandeur and the small size of the village of Avioth, the church is also called "the Cathedral of the Fields", because it appears to have been built in no man's land. It owes its location and size to the fact that the village was located on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.
HistoryEdit
Originally a simple hamlet, the village of Avioth owes its development to the miraculous discovery of a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary and Child during the twelfth century. A pilgrimage soon developed here and the ecclesiastical and feudal authorities supported the construction of a church.
The Church of Our Lady of Avioth enjoyed the privilege of being a very popular place of refuge. The pilgrimage to Our Lady of Avioth has been held since the twelfth century. Every year, this procession on July 16 attracts many believers. According to tradition, Bernard of Clairvaux sang the Salve Regina for the first time. Pope John Paul II elevated the building to basilica minor in 1993.
Our Lady of Avioth is one of the few so-called Black Virgins in northeastern France.[2] Carbon-14 dating of the lime wood has shown that the wood was carved around the year 1095, thus confirming the tradition that the statue was discovered in the 12th century.