Vatican Recognizes Shrine That Could Rival Lourdes

PARIS — The Roman Catholic Church officially recognized a shrine in the French Alps yesterday where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a young shepherdess — the first such recognition in France since Lourdes almost 150 years ago.

Notre Dame du Laus, which already draws some 120,000 pilgrims each year, was formally acknowledged by the Vatican after three years of research into its credentials by a team of theologians, historians, and psychologists.

About 6,000 Catholics, including more than 20 bishops and cardinals, attended a solemn Mass at the sanctuary of Benoite Rencurel — who was 16 when she first reported seeing the Virgin Mary in 1664.

The shepherdess was described by one observer as the French champion of apparitions, because she saw the Virgin Mary around 2,500 times over 54 years — averaging once a week.

Church authorities in the southeastern town of Gap had long struggled to convince the Vatican to beatify the shepherdess — a request it refused as recently as 2003.