OLV vd overwinning

After 1809 Notre-Dame des Victoires [in Paris] - former chapel of the Petits-Pères [Discalced Augustinians], built in the years 1629-1740 - became a parish church, but as it was located in a business area, it had few parishioners. The curé Charles-Éléonore Dufriche-Desgenettes thought he had failed in his ministry and wanted to resign his functions in Our Lady of Victories...

when on the 3 December 1836, during the Consecration of the Mass, he received what he believed to be an instantaneous and complete intellectual infusion of the requirements, rules and activities for the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who also inspired Fr. Desgenettes to consecrate the parish to her Immaculate Heart, and to invite men living and working in the parish area to come to a meeting. 500 men did come, the first time.

At the meeting, Fr. Desgenettes invited the men to wear a White Scapular with an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the words "SWEET HEART OF MARY BE MY SALVATION" on the front scapular and the symbols and words "REFUGE OF SINNERS, PRAY FOR US" on the back scapular. They initially called this parish men's group: the Confraternity of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners. Fr. Desgenettes wrote down his entire inspiration and immediately submitted it to the Holy See.

Only two years later, in 1838, Pope Gregory XVI approved and established the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. By 1870, there were 22 million members of this Archconfraternity worldwide, ánd a Religious Congregation founded by Saint Anthony Mary Claret, The Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, aka Claretians or Claretian Missionary Fathers.

Many of the famous French Catholics of the period maintained a connection to the Church. These included Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, Ven. Francis Libermann and the refounders of the Holy Ghost Fathers and a whole host of Foreign Missions seminarians and priests, including St. Theophane Venard.

Blessed John Henry Newman went there to give thanks for his conversion, which had been the subject of prayer there. Later, the young Thérèse Martin prayed before the same statue for Our Lady's help in realizing her vocation. On the occasion of the canonization of Thérèse, in 1927, Notre-Dame des Victoires was elevated to basilica status...

~bron~