After the horrible persecutions of the French Revolution, Catholics worked to rebuild the Faith in France. This effort included the founding of religious congregations of men and women.

In 1820, Fr. Peter de Noailles established a congregation of women named the Holy Family of Bordeaux - otherwise known as the Ladies of Loreto. These good women provided various charitable services for the Church.

Numerous houses of this organization were established in Bordeaux and the neighboring countryside. In one of their chapels, at the house at 22-24 rue Mazarin, an extraordinary event occurred in the year 1822, just two years after their congregation was first founded.

The priest who was present gave a detailed account of the occurrence. What follows is taken from what he wrote:

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I wish to declare that I am a priest now living near the parish of Saint Eulalie of Bordeaux. I have no intention but to confirm, in public, the favor that I wish to record concerning the event in the establishment of the Ladies of Loreto. I was witness to this prodigy myself. I wish to attest and affirm before my Saviour, my God, the truth of the facts contained in the present declaration.

The priest Noailles, superior of the Institute of Loreto, could not himself give the Benediction to the community of Loreto and begged me to replace him for this service. I went to the house of these sisters, the third of this month, Sunday the feast of Septuagesima, at four o’clock in the afternoon. As soon as I arrived I was ready to give the Benediction.

Naturally I exposed the Blessed Sacrament, but I was not finished blessing the Sacrament with the incense when I looked at the Monstrance. I realized that I had placed the holy Species [the Host] there, but instead of the holy Species, I saw our Saviour, head, chest and arms, in the middle of the circle that served Him as a frame like a painting, but with this difference, that the painting looked alive.

His figure was very white and represented a young man about thirty years old, extraordinarily beautiful. He was dressed with a dark red scarf draped over His shoulder and chest. His head was inclined from time to time on the right side and the left side.

Struck by this miracle and not believing my eyes, I thought it was an illusion, but the miracle continued. I could not stay in this uncertainty and I made a sign to the server who was holding the censer to approach me. I asked him if he saw something extraordinary. He answered that he had already perceived the miracle and that he could still see it. I told him to go and get the superior. There in the sacristy she was herself struck by this spectacle and absorbed with sentiments that inspired her.

As for myself, I prostrated upon the floor. I only raised my eyes and was humbled in the presence of my Saviour. Tears of joy came to me because of the favor. The miracle continued during all the hymns of the Blessed Sacrament, the canticle and the orations. When the canticle was finished I approached the altar, I don’t know how, because it seemed to me that I would not have the courage at this time. I took in my hands the Monstrance and gave the Benediction, contemplating all the time our Divine Saviour Who was visible in my hands. I gave to the Ladies of Loreto the miraculous blessing which was, without a doubt, very efficacious to this new establishment. I placed the Monstrance on the altar, but when I opened it I did not see the Host in which our Saviour came to give the Benediction. All trembling and with tears in my eyes, I left the chapel.

As soon as I was outside the chapel all the persons of the house and the laypeople of the parish talked to me asking me if I had seen the prodigy and asked me many questions about the subject. I could only say these words: "You have seen our Saviour, which is a signal favor He has accorded us in order to make us remember that He is really with us and to ask you to love Him always, and more so than before, and to practice the virtues since He gave you such a great grace." I left and went home, but during the night I could only think about the miracle I had witnessed. Next day, Monday, I went to the parish of Saint Eulalie and I found the priest Noailles. I told him what had happened and other persons came, too, and spoke about the miracle. Even though I was thinking of talking about it at length, the altar boy and a few strangers who were in the chapel had already told him what they had seen…

Whatever happened I declare what I saw and what I almost touched with my own hands. Whatever will be the consequences of my testimony, I would be regarded as very ungrateful and the most guilty of all men if I refused to attest to the truth.

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This testimony, signed "Delort, priest," was written on February 5, 1822.

The following day, February 6, the Mother Superior also wrote a testimony. Below is an excerpt from it:

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[I saw] our Saviour Jesus Christ all illuminated. I could see His Head to His chest. He was framed in the circle of the Monstrance, but He seemed to move from time to time and then His face seemed to want to come out of the circle on the side where I was. I saw light flashing from all sides and so quickly that each seemed, for a moment, to resemble long stems ending in a burst of a flower before it disappeared.

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Other testimonies, attested to and signed by the altar boy and other witnesses, gave further details. These people all saw Our Lord down to the chest. His arms moved, and He smiled sweetly at those present. Occasionally His left Hand rested on the red cloth that came down over His shoulder, and His right hand was lifted in blessing.

The vision lasted the entirety of the Benediction service, about 20 minutes.

Having reviewed the reports, the Archbishop of Bordeaux declared the recognition of the Church. Not long afterwards, Pope Leo XII affirmed the truth of the miracle, and signed a brief that established the feast of the Holy Family to commemorate this wondrous favor that Jesus granted to the congregation thus named.

Originally, the feast of the Holy Family was to be celebrated on Septuagesima Sunday, since that is when the miracle occurred. However, as of 1921, this feast is observed during the Christmas season.

The congregation of the Holy Family annually holds celebrations to honor the miracle. In one of the houses of their order, they have preserved the monstrance that was used during that blessed Benediction in 1822.

Fr. Peter de Noailles - who founded the congregation and who was the parish priest when the miracle took place - continued to live his life in such a way that his holiness has been officially regarded and he may one day be declared a saint.

A Painting Based on the Apparition