The Great Procession of Tournai

Introduction

For over nine hundred years, shrines, statues and other true religious art treasures are carried by a large number of faithful walking in procession through the streets of Tournai, one of the oldest cities of the western countries.

Year by year, these men and women repeat the procession set up in 1092 to thank Our Lady for delivering the city from the plague.

Stepping out of the famous five-tower cathedral, the pilgrims come back after showing to the crowd pieces of a most remakable human and christian heritage.

History

The Roots

Around the years 1089 and 1090, an awful illness is devastating the Tournai area, Flanders and Brabant. It is probably not the plague as often stated, but a poisoning due to the rye ergot. A tragic epidemic as reported by the chronicles of the time. The sick and those fearing the illness come to crowd the cathedral of Tournai to seek recovery or the protection of the church. Why this cathedral ? Well, for many of them, the Tournai Cathedral is their bishop's church, father of his people. Moreover, everybody knows; this church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Sensitive to the calamity of so many men and women, Radbod, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, invited all the christians to a fast on friday 13 september 1090 and the next day, saturday 14, feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, proposed them a procession of supplication around the city threatened by death. Their prayer was heard and the scourge ceased. Radbod decided then to renew the procession each year to prove their gratitude to God.

An ever-honored Vow

Since the end of the 11^th century, bishop Radbod's vow has always been honored. The only exception in this long history: the Procession could not happen in 1566 because the city was occupied by the iconoclasts. It is a unique case. Nor the wars nor the French Revolution never prevented it to take place. During the Revolution, as the cathedral was closed and entirely devastated by the occupying army, the parishioners decided to organise the Procession inside the cathedral, reopened for the circumstance.

Layout of the Procession

The organization of the Procession has not always been the same through the centuries. Its character of living tradition made it change. Each era leaved a mark on it but it has however kept the essential features that its founder had wanted: an act of faith in the Christ, the only savior, expressed by christians lead by their bishop and gathered around the Virgin Mary and the Saints protecting the city. The Procession of Tournai is the prayer of a whole community in praise of God, a community of the saints in the sky, present by their relics or statues sharing the prayer of their earthly brothers.

The Procession

The Saints, pillars of our faith.

We are not going to God alone. Faith, a gift of God comes to us through the Church. It is fair that the Tournai christian community worships the first who erected the pillars of this faith on the angular stone layed by the Christ.

• Heralds on Horseback

  Three heralds on horseback carry the banners of Belgium, the city of Tournai and of the Cathedral Chapter.

• Tournai Fire Brigade

  The Royal Brass Band of the Voluntary Fire Brigade of Tournai.

• The Processional Cross

  In 1092 when the Bishop Radbod founded the procession, it was the 14^th September, feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Looking at the image of the Cross, the christian remembers Jesus-Christ who suffered and died on the Cross to save the mankind.

• Silver reliquary arms with relics of Saint Apollonia and Saint Ursula
  St-James' Church, Tournai plate, 17^th century.

  Saint Apollonia was a martyr. She was jailed in Alexandria in 249 during a prosecution ordered by the Emperor Dece. Her teeth were broken before she was burned. Saint Apollonia was honored at the cathedral, then at the Black Sisters' chapel. In 1804, the cult to the holy martyr was transfered to the St-James'church.

  Saint Ursula was a martyr in Köln. Ursula' s worship begins in Tournai during the 16^th century, first at the cathedral, then at the St-Martin abbey, at the Black Sisters convent and, since 1667 at the Ursulines'monastery.

• Reliquaries of Saint Quentin and Saint Donat
  St-Quentin's church, plate, early 20^th century.

  Saint Quentin was an apostle of Vermandois. This group was attributed the evangelization of the North of Gaul at the end of the 3^rd century. He is, since the Carolingian era, the patron of a church in Tournai.

  Saint Donat was a bishop of Arezzo. He was dead a as martyr in the 4^th century. He is worshiped in Tournai since the 17^th century.

• Statue of Saint Stephen deacon and martyr
  Polychrome wood statue, 18^th century, Church of Templeuve.

  Stephen was the first of the 7 deacons named to help the apostles in the Church administration at the begining. Zealous predicator, he irritates the jews of Jerusalem who arrest him and stone him to death in 35.

• Silver reliquary arms with relics of Saint Brice and Saint Marcou
  St-Brice's Church, Tournai plate, 1653.

  St Brice was the bishop of Tours (Fr). A follower of St Martin, he becomes his successor as head of Tours' church. He deceased in 444. His cult is very old in Tournai, where he is the patron of a church build near King Childeric's grave.

  St Marcou is the founder of Nanteuil's abbey in Cotentin (Fr). He deceased in 558. He was worshiped by the kings of France at their crown in Reims. He his honored at St Brice's chuch since the 15^th century.

• Statue of Saint Joseph
  Contemporary work by Tournai sculptor Momirel. Church of La Glanerie.

  The statue is carried by the parishioners of La Glanerie where St Joseph is especially honored. The Holy Virgin's husband is also the patron of Belgium.

• Silver reliquary head with relics of Saint Margaret
  St-Margaret's church, Tournai plate, 16^th century

  St Margaret was a Martyr in Antioch. She suffered there in the 3^rd century because she wouldn't renounce to the christian faith. Her legend can be read on a fresco on the north transept of the cathedral. Since 1288, she is the patron of a church in Tournai.

• Saxophonists of Moulineau (Ghlin)

• Reliquary and statue of Saint Hermes, saint patron of the town of Ronse
  Church of St-Nicolas, reliquary, Tournai plate, 18^th century, wooden statue, 17^th century.

  St Hermes was a roman soldier, martyr in the 2^nd century. He is the patron of the town of Ronse where his relics are kept in the basilic bearing his name. The martyr is worshiped in Tournai at St-Nicolas church since the 15^th century.

• Statue of Saint John
  St James' Church, gilt woodcarving, 1956.

  St John, apostle and evangelist. The brother of James, he lived in Christ's privacy and transmitted his testimony in his writings. Printers and other book workers carry the statue of their patron.

• Statues and reliquary of Saint Nicholas
  St-Quentin's Church, statuette, Tournai plate, 17^th century.
  Church of St-Nicholas, gilt wooden statue and reliquary, Tournai plate, both 18^th century.

  St Nicholas was the bishop of Myre during the NicÈe concile at the begining of the 4^th century. Patron of children,of sailors and in the Middle Age, patron of merchants, he was in Tournai one of the patron of Our Lady's parish and is now patron of the church bearing his name.

• Statue of Saint Roch
  St-Quentin's Church, Tournai plate, 17^th century.

  St Roch, pilgrim. Born in Montpellier in 1295, he left his country to help the sick in Italy. He died in 1327.

• Reliquary and statue of Saint John the Baptist
  Church of St-John the Baptist, gilt woodcarving, 17^th century; Tournai plate, 1624.

• Silver statue of Saint Barbara
  St-Quentin's Church, Tournai plate, 17^th century

  St Barbara, martyr in Phenicia. Her worship was introduced in Rome by Byzance's people as early as the end of the 6^th century. Invoked against dangers of thunderstorm and fire, St Barbara is worshiped in Our Lady's parish since the 17^th century. The statue is escorted by the Voluntary Fire Brigade of Tournai.

• Statue of Saint James
  St-James' Church, wooden statue, 1776.

  St James, apostle. Dead as a martyr in 43 or 44, his grave attracts pilgrims in Compostella (Spain) since the Midle Age. His name was given in 1160 to a church of Tournai built on the road taken by pilgrims from Flanders to Compostella.

• Wooden statue of Saint Lazare
  Chapel of the Leperhouse of Val d'Orcq, 17^th century

  St Lazare, the friend of God, was considered at the end of the Middle Age as the patron for leprous. At this time, he became the patron of a chapel dating from 1153, built by the canons of the cathedral for the leprous of Val d'Orcq. The statue is carried by members of the local Damien Foundation, an association struggling against leper in the world.

• Statue of Saint Eloi
  Wooden carving, 18^th century.

  St Eloi, craftsman and bishop of Tournai. Born in Chaptelat (Limoges, Fr) in 588, he was a goldsmith. In May 641, he was consecrated bishop of Noyon and Tournai. Deceased in 660, he is the patron of all metal workers and farmers. The statue is carried by local farmers.

• Silver reliquary bust of Saint Piatus
  St-Piatus' Church, contemporary plate, 1957.

  St Piatus, Tournai's apostle. He was a member of a missionaries' group evangelizating the north of Gaul at the end of the 3^rd century. Under the church bearing his name, a basilic dating back to the 6^th century (or before) was found in 1970, an evidence of the antiquity of his cult in Tournai. The city has always considered him to be its first apostle.

Mary's devotion groups

These groups escort statues of Our Lady as invoked in sanctuaries. More than any other, this part of the Procession is dear to Tournai people.

• Our Lady of the Family
  Polychrome wooden statue, 17^th century, Saint Amand's Chuch, Hertain.

  The Holy Virgin as a child is presented with her arents holding her hands. St Joachim holds in the other hand a grape, and St Anna some wheat ears, "fruits of earth and of human work", the bread and the wine of Eucharisty. Mary is crushing the snake's head.

• Our Lady of Deliverance
  Sacred Heart's Church, copy of a statue from the 14^th century.

  Our Lady of Deliverance is the name under which, since the 6^th century, the Virgin is worshiped in Paris. Deliverance means deliverance of political cataclysms, illnesses, internal temptations. The present statue dates from the 14^th century. Reproductions were made at the end of the 19^th century for religious communities. Abbot Friant, expelled from France in 1885, founder of Sacred Heart's church, introduced the cult of Our Lady in his church.

• The Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Lourdes
  Church of St-Nicholas.

  The first Tournai pilgrims in Lourdes (Fr) obtained, in 1875, to form a brotherhood in St Nicholas' Church. The statue escorted by nurses and stretcher-bearers, is preceded by young girls wearing clothes like Bernadette Soubirous.

• Our Lady of Halle
  St-Quentin's Church, wooden statue, 17^th century.

  The brotherhood of Our Lady of Halle was founded in St Quentins's church at the begining of the 15^th century. It groups pilgrims heading to Halle (Brabant) in a church of which, a statue of the Virgin Mary is worshiped since 1262.

• Our Lady of La Salette
  Church of Our Lady of La Salette, 19^th century.

  Since 1846, the Virgin Mary is adored on La Salette mountain, near Grenoble (Fr) under the name "Reconciliator of sinners". In 1901, fathers from La Salette were refugees in Tournai and built a chapel consecrated in 1904, now a church since 1961.

• Our Lady Helper of all
  Church of Our Lady Helper of all, polychrome wooden statue, 1890.

  The 25^th august 1890, Mrs Robertine Henry, after 50 years carrying Our Lady's statue at the Procession gave her parish a new statue of Our Lady, helper or christians.

• Our Lady of Good Hope
  St-Piatus Church, contemporary copy of statue from about 1360.

  The statue is a copy of an orginal kept at Good Hope abbey near Binche (B). This abbey, founded in 1130 by canons of the Prémontré order, houses today a college of Tournai's diocese.

• Our Lady of Mercy
  Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy, gilt wooden statue, 17^th century.

  In 1683, Marc Denis, abbot of St-Nicholas-in-the-fields, had a chapel erected at the Valenciennes suburb in Tournai. The statue worshiped there is called Our Lady of Mercy.

• Our Lady of Beauraing

  Since the Beauraing's apparitions from november 1932 till january 1933, Our Lady is worshiped at many places in the world under the name Our Lady of Beauraing. In Ramegnies-Chin, an important chapel devoted to Our Lady of Beauraing welcomes a great number of pilgrims.

• Our Lady in travail
  St James' Church, gilt wooden statue, 17^th century.

  Cribs in churches at Christmas time were often called Our Lady's travail ("la Gésine" in french). Our Lady in travail or Mary giving birth to Jesus is worshiped at St James since the 15^th century.

• Our Lady of Tongre
  St-James' church, wooden statue, 16^th century.

  The pilgrimage in Tongre-Notre-Dame near Ath (B) is quite old. Since the 15^th century, a brotherhood at St James' church groups pilgrims to Tongre.

• Our Lady of Fatima
  Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, contemporary work.

  Since the destruction in 1940 Our Lady of the Rosary has been replaced by a copy of the Virgin worshiped in Fatima (Pt).

• Our Lady of the Tomb
  Copy of the statue of the Virgin and the Christ child, early 17^th century, Our Lady of the Tomb's Church, Kain.

  The cult at the locality of 'La Tombe' in Kain is testified before the 15^th century. A brotherhood has built a chapel in the 16^th century, now a recognized pilgrimage place.

• Our Lady of Bon-Secours
  St-Brice's Church, Tournai plate, 1823.

  At the begining of the 18^th century, people took the habit to go and pray Our Lady before a little statue attached to a tree trunk in Condé's forest. Many recoveries obtained at this place with the interceding of Our Lady made people call her Bon-Secours (Good Help). As soon as 1642, St Brice's parishioners went there in pilgrimage.

• Our Lady of Blissful Demise
  Church of St-Nicholas, wooden carving, 15^th century.

  Devotion to Our Lady of Blissful Demise dates back to the 15^th century at St Nicholas' church. The statue of the sitting virgin was done at this time. It is the oldest statue of the Virgin kept in a Tournai parish, St Nicholas having escaped the iconoclasts' looting in 1566.

• Our Lady of Peaceful End
  Church of Saint-Mary-Magdalen, gilt wooden statue, 18^th century.

  Her cult was introduced in 1758 by Godefroid Gaillard, abbot of Ch’teau-l'Abbaye. The Virgin Mary was invoked under this name to obtain success in anything we undertake during this life, and in this way, come to a good and last end.

• Our Lady of Vine Arbour
  St-Margaret's Church, silver statue, 1724.

  Since the 13^th century, the city of Lille (Fr) honors the Virgin Mary as its patron under the title Our Lady of Vine Arbour. This name comes from the wire mesh enclosing the statue, image of an enclosure where shelter and peace can be found. The pilgrimage of many Tournaisians to Lille was at the origin of a new brotherhood established in St Nicaise church, in the 17^th century. During the demolition of the church, the staue was transfered to St Margaret and then to St Quentin (where it is still now).

• Mary mother of the Christ and mother of mankind
  St-Paul's Church, polychrome wooden statue, presumed 15^th century.

  St Paul's church, built in 1964 possesses this statue since 1969, a gift of grateful parishioners who bought it in Paris. The sitting Virgin carries on her knees Jesus child, blessing with his right hand.

• Our Lady of Consolation
  Church of St-John the Baptist, wooden statue, 18^th century.

  St John the Baptist's parish honors the Virgin Mary under this title. As a testimony of their devotion, the members of the brotherhood had this wooden statue produced in the 18^th century. The parishioners gave it a precious crown in 1945.

• Our Lady of Alsemberg
  St Piatus' Church, Tournai plate, 1759.

  Our Lady is prayed under the name of Star of the Sea since the middle of the 13^th century on the Alsemberg hill (Brabant). Tournai pilgrims grouped together as a confraternity at St Piatus' church. They appointed the goldsmith Gaspard Sailly to produce this silver statue, a jewel of Tournai plate.

• Our Lady of Acren
  Saint Martin Church, Deux-Acren, copy of statue from 12^th century.

  The Deux-Acren parish shelters a miraculous statue dating back to the 12^th century. During restauration work to the church' tower in 1313, it collapsed and smashed everything in the church except this statue. The 17^th february 1346, during the mass, blood is reported to have run from her right nostril, which was collected in a silver vase. Since then, many miraculous graces were obtained with her interceding. Every year, the 17^th february is commemorated by the faithful under the vocable 'the 17^th'. At the occasion of the 650^th anniversary of the miracle, the parishioners cary a copy of the Virgin at the Great Procession of Tournai.

Cathedral's Groups

One of the beautifulest temples dedicated to God's glory, it rises its five towers in a place devoted to prayer for 15 centuries.

• Reliquary arm with relics of Saint Eleutherus, bishop of Tournai
  Cathedral Church, Tournai plate, 1892.

  St Eleutherus is one of the first bishops of Tournai, at the begining of the 6^th century. During his youth, he was a member of the court of King Childeric. He was promoted to episcopat under Clovis by St Remi, bishop of Reims (Fr). Relics of St Eleutherus were carried to the cathedral in 1064. An arm relic of the 19^th and two shrines of the 14^th and 13^th centuries are part of the relics.

• The Squire's shrine
  Cathedral Church, Bruges plate, 1571.

  Founded in 1280, this brotherhood grouped together the local authority. Now, its members are mainly law people. The shrine they carry shelters the head of St Eleutherus.

• Shrine of Saint Eleutherus
  Cathedral Church, reliquary chest, 1247.

  People of Blandain have the privilege to carry this shrine, considered as a masterpiece of the Middle Age plate. The bishop Gauthier de Marvis put in this shrine the remains of St Eleutherus on the 25^th august 1247.

• Shrine of Our Lady of Flanders
  Cathedral Church, reliquary chest, 1205.
  One of the seven wonders of Belgium

  One of the 7 wonders of Belgium, this precious reliquary is a testimony on the genius of its creator, Nicolas de Verdun. It contains the relics of St Eloi, St Amand, St Demetrios, patriarch of Alexandria and St John Chrysostomos, patriarch of Constantinople.

• Our Lady with the dark face, or Our Lady of Flanders
  Cathedral Church, polychrome stone statue, 16^th century.

  For a long time, the cathedral has sheltered a statue of the Virgin. This statue was destroyed by the iconoclasts in 1566. The next year, a spanish officer in garrison in Tournai gave, as a replacement, a white-stoned, polychrome statue. Following a tradition of the Middle Age, the statue of Our Lady with the dark face always wears a cape.

• Our Lady Helper of the Sick
  Cathedral Church, polychrome copy of the statue in the porch.

  Since 1390, the Virgin Mary is honored at the cathedral under the name Virgo Infirmorum . The city of Tournai never forgot the recoveries obtained with her interceding and considers her as its patron. The big statue of Our Lady of the Sick stands up at the gate of the cathedral, at exactly the same place where the plague victims gathered. The statue is carried at the Procession by members of the medical profession.

• The Gospel and some priests wearing copes

• The precious Byzantine reliquary cross with relics of the cross of the Savior
  Cathedral Church, byzantine jewelled plate, given to the Cathedral by Knight Jean Bliaut in 1205.

  Since the 13^th century, Tournai christians venerate this cross at most. It is carried by the dean of the cathedral chapter of Tournai.

• The Blessed Sacrament carried by His Grace, bishop Jean Huart

  At the end of the Procession, after the Tantum Ergo song, the Blessed Sacrament bendediction is given in the cathedral...

Tantum Ergo sacramentum
veneremur cernui,
et antiquum documentum
novo cedat ritui;
praestet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui.
Genitori Genitoque
laus et iubilatio,
salus, honor, virtus quoque
sit et benedictio;
Procedenti ab utroque
compar sit laudation.
Amen.