Models of boats donated for answered prayers hang in basilica in Marseille, Olympic sailing host

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Little model boats hang from the ceiling and maritime paintings adorn the walls of the basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, which from the city's highest hill overlooks the bay of Marseille, where sailing regattas are being held for the 2024 Olympics.

They’re votive offerings — some more than 200 years old — that residents of this Mediterranean port city continue to bring in gratitude to the Virgin Mary for everything from avoiding shipwrecks to successful rescues of migrants trying to make it to Europe on unseaworthy boats.

“Since its origins, Notre Dame de la Garde has been venerated by all seafarers,” said Jean-Michel Sanchez, the head conservator of the basilica’s museum. “Marseille was born of the sea.”

He estimates the basilica’s collection of ex-votos, as the offerings are called, at several thousands, including many in storage. And that’s after those predating the French Revolution were destroyed in the anticlerical violence that followed it.

Offerings shaped in reference to prayers answered – from babies to limbs, from vehicles to sports jerseys – are common across Catholic and Orthodox churches in Southern Europe especially, and in parts of the United States.

The nautical motifs that dominate Marseille’s landmark church are inextricably linked to the city's 2,600-year-old seafaring history.

The first chapel was built in the 1200s on a barren rocky outcrop above the main port. In the 16th century, France’s king ordered the construction of a fort around the chapel to defend the growing harbor. Most of it still serves as the pedestal on which the massive basilica that replaced the chapel was built in the 1850s.

The name itself speaks to that connection between guarding the port and divine protection, Sanchez said. “Garde” means guard in French.

Inside the church, the models hanging from the ceiling include elegant sailboats, three-masted ships and utilitarian cargo vessels. About once a month someone brings a new one — sometimes with an explanation, sometimes anonymously, most handmade.

Among the most recent additions is a helicopter, donated a few years ago by civil defense forces. They were grateful for never having had an accident while conducting high-risk rescues of climbers in Marseille’s calanques, narrow inlets east of the Olympic marina, said Marie Aubert, who works with the basilica’s historical collections.

Hundreds of marble plaques, some just inscribed “merci a N D” — thank you to Our Lady — pack the walls. So many continue to be donated that church officials are now lining the terrace walls outside with them.

“The connection of the people of Marseille with the Bonne Mère is transmitted from generation to generation,” said the basilica’s rector, the Rev. Olivier Spinosa, using the popular name for the church, French for “good mother.”

One chapel is decorated with paintings of boats, including a 2011 work donated by a ship’s two captains. It gives thanks for their crews’ rescue of nearly two dozen North African migrants in the Mediterranean, Spinosa said.

The painting is inscribed with a prayer for all victims of trafficking and illegal immigration — one of Europe’s political flashpoints and a recurring source of tragedy, with estimates of nearly 30,000 migrants dying trying to cross the sea in the past decade.

Both were themes of Pope Francis’ visit to Marseille last fall and the prayer service he celebrated by the basilica.

In its apse, behind a statue of Mary that arrived, of course, by boat, is a 19th-century mosaic of a ship sailing between choppy and calm seas by a lighthouse. It’s an allegory of the church traversing the storms of history, with Mary providing the guiding light.

“The Bonne Mère is a mother who welcomes everyone,” Spinosa said. “Like the soul of Marseille.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - The Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica overlooks the harbor in Marseille, France, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

The mosaic of the cul-de-four of the apse is pictured inside the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica in Marseille, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

An ex-voto of a ship hangs inside the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica in Marseille, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Paintings of ships hang inside the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica in Marseille, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

An ex-voto of a ship hangs inside the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica in Marseille, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

FILE - Pope Francis leaves the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica at the end of a Marian prayer with the diocesan clergy, in Marseille, France, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

Visitors stand near paintings of ships in the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica in Marseille, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

The mosaic of the cul-de-four of the apse is pictured inside the Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica in Marseille, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Catholic Church is getting a new addition to its ranks of “blessed,” with the beatification of the Rev. Moisés Lira.

The beatification ceremony was taking Saturday at Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica, led by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, who was appointed by Pope Francis for the occasion.

Before Lira, the latest Mexican to be beatified was María Concepción Cabrera in 2019.

Here’s a look at Lira’s life in a country that’s home to nearly 100 million Catholics.

He was born in September 1893 in Puebla, one of Mexico’s most conservative states.

His mother died when he was 5 and he suffered the absence of his father, who had to relocate for work.

Lira dreamt of becoming a priest from a young age. In 1914, he became the first novice of a congregation founded by French priest Félix de Jesús Rougier. And in 1922, after being ordained a priest, he wrote the motto that would define his life: “It is necessary to be very small to be a great saint.”

Lira devoted his life to teach catechists, care for the ill and offer spiritual guidance to vulnerable communities. In 1934, he founded a congregation — the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate — as well as schools and psychiatric institutions.

He died in Mexico City in 1950.

According to Mother María de la Luz Nava, from the congregation founded by Lira, the miracle took place between May and June 2004.

Back then, a pregnant woman from Guanajuato — another of Mexico’s conservative states — got the worst news imaginable: at 18 weeks of gestation, her unborn daughter suffered from a condition characterized by accumulation of fluid.

The diagnosis, the doctor said, could be fatal for the fetus or affect the mother. And though he offered to terminate the pregnancy, the woman and her husband refused.

“There wasn’t much hope,” Mother María de la Luz said. “But they were very clear about one thing: they were not going to opt for abortion. They were going to continue looking for options so that their daughter would be born well.”

Back home, the woman found a brochure on the Rev. Lira’s work. “I don’t know you,” she told him. “But please, help me.”

For nine days, she prayed. And when a new doctor’s appointment came, a surprise awaited.

“What did you do?” the doctor asked the couple. “Because your daughter is healthy.”

“This is where the intercession of Father Moisés is very evident,” said Mother María de la Luz. “And it shows how a miracle is produced by faith.”

De la Luz's congregation learned about the case in 2014. The beatification request was made through the local diocese the following year and eight years passed until Pope Francis issued a decree for the miracle in 2023.

According to the Rev. David Padrón, who has worked on causes for canonization, the miracle attributed to Lira makes him a protector of life from conception.

“This is a very strong message from God,” Padrón said. “Maybe those mothers who have a problem during their pregnancies can confide in him.”

Aside from that, he said, parishioners could also entrust him with health and education causes, because Lira worked extensively with sick people and students.

“Much of his pastoral work dignified those who, due to illness, poverty or some other situation, did not enjoy a dignified life in society,” Padrón said.

Catholic leaders trust that a second miracle would be produced after Saturday’s beatification, which would allow them to pursue Lira's canonization.

In the meantime, local parishes will honor him each June 15. “We have included him as part of the saints of the Archdiocese of Mexico, hoping that, when he is canonized, he can be celebrated throughout the world,” Padrón said.

Lira’s most treasured relic is a metacarpal bone from his right hand. It’s symbolic, Padrón said, because Lira shared the Gospel through his writings and it’s part of the pointing finger.

“The blessed and the saints are men and women who point us to Christ,” he said.

A few first-class relics — body parts of Lira — will be soon distributed through parishes that were significant in his life or for Mexico’s Catholic community, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica and Puebla’s cathedral.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Nuns arrive for the beatification ceremony of Rev. Moisés Lira at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro presides over the beatification ceremony of Rev. Moisés Lira at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro presides over the beatification ceremony of Rev. Moisés Lira at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

A portrait of Rev. Moisés Lira hangs at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe during his beatification ceremony in Mexico City, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)