Our Lady of Pontmain - January 17
Bob Lord on Feb 6, 2013 Our Lady of Hope is the title given to the Virgin Mary on her apparition at Pontmain, France on January 17, 1871. The Franco-Prussian War (War of 1870) was the culmination of years of tension between the two nations, which finally came to a head on 19 July 1870, when Emperor Napoleon III of the second Empire declared war against Prussia. From the first days of the war, defeat followed defeat. By January 1871, Paris was under siege, two-thirds of the country was in the power of the Prussians, and they were advancing.
The apparition is said to have occurred at the height of the Franco-Prussian War. Pontmain, a hamlet of about 500 inhabitants, lay between the oncoming Prussian army and the city of Laval. The Barbadette family consisted of father César, his wife, Victoire, with their two sons Joseph and Eugène, aged ten and twelve, and another older boy who was away in the army. On the evening of 17 January 1871, the two boys …More