C.D.P. (anonymous).

["I WILL LIVE IN THIS VALLEY, FOR I HAVE CHOSEN IT" – A COUNTER-REFORMATION TRIBUTE TO A MARIAN CULT IN THE SPANISH NETHERLANDS] Abregé des miracles de N[otr]e. Dame de Bas-Wavre [Abregé des miracles de N[otr]e. Dame de Bas-Wavre]. Unpublished manuscript.

[Modern-day Walloon Brabant, Belgium], dated May 1, 1622. Small quarto (18.7 × 14.7 cm). Contemporary vellum; boards ruled and with gilt fleurons to center; [52] pp. of manuscript text to rectos and versos, in brown ink on laid paper, in a neat, calligraphic hand. Text in French. Decorative title with signature and date to leaf [4]. Boards lightly distended and with a few stains; text resized to binding, minimally affecting the occasional letter edge and one chapter heading; paper somewhat toned and discolored; a few spots throughout; overall good or better. Item #54926

Anonymously authored and apparently unpublished manuscript, composed as part of a popular revival during the Counter Reformation of the cult of Our Lady of Basse-Wavre in Belgian Walloon Brabant, known today as Notre-Dame de Paix et de Concorde (Our Lady of Peace and Concord). The church had been founded as a Benedictine priory dedicated to Saint Mary, established by Affligem Abbey around 1092–1093 on land granted in 1086 by Count Henry III of Louvain and his brother Godfrey. In 1999, the chapel, which had become a parish church in 1803, was made a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II (the first and only basilica in the province of Walloon Brabant). According to tradition, around 1050 farmers heard the sounds of "heavenly music" from the current site of the church, the marshes of Basse-Wavre, and decided to erect a structure in honor of the Virgin after witnessing a miraculous apparition. The construction was then relocated from the unstable marshlands, but over and over it reverted to the original site by the morning. This culminated in a second vision, during which the Virgin was said to proclaim: "I will live in this valley, for I have chosen it" (the vision is also described in chapter one of the present work).

The preface establishes the probity of the author's sources: he (or she) relied primarily on the "Chronica" of Sigebert of Gembloux (c. 1030–1112), a Benedictine monk of Gembloux Abbey, in addition to other "ancient manuscripts" and "public testimony." These are said to cumulatively demonstrate a frequency and "grandeur" of miracles surpassing even those of Apostolic times, and including "the greatest ones", such as the resurrection of the dead, the restoration of eyesight to the blind, and the curing of various illnesses. The manuscript is further divided into seven chapters, which cover the foundation of the church; the discovery of the reliquary; the translation of relics to Brussels and miracles effected there; gatherings and processions with the relics; "burning sickness extinguished" from the bodies of Brussels residents (most likely ergotism, or St. Antony's fire); the reliquary chest; and finally a number of miracles worked elsewhere in the region during processions.

The cult of Notre Dame de Basse-Wavre primarily centered around a "small casket" (petit coffret) of relics discovered at the site of the original vision, which contained, among numerous other important relics, a fragment of the True Cross and of the Blood of Christ. By 1150, it was decided to translate the relics, which were now in a reliquary chest ("chapse") to Brussels (possibly to protect against the plague), where it was further embellished by silversmiths with precious metals and stones and where it worked countless miracles between the time of Easter and St. John's day (June 24). A later chapter describes another miracle involving the chest within this time frame, which may explain the subsequent tradition of a procession with the relics on June 24: seeing the many miracles associated with it, the religious at Affligem Abbey desired to take possession of the "chapse" in order to honor their own monastery with it. But when the many monks and religious came to Brussels, the chest would not budge until St. John's Day – again reenforcing the notion that the Virgin alone could chose the site of her cult.

A fair copy in an easily legible hand, the manuscript is signed with the initials "CDP" on the decorative title and was apparently never published. While it contains no express requests or suggestions, its most likely purpose would have been to bolster a Brabantine Marian cult that had played a great role in medieval times and was witnessing a revival of sorts during the early seventeenth century, as part of the Counter Reformation in the Spanish Netherlands. This intention is also suggested by the dedication to Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633), sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, daughter of King Philip II, and by 1622 widow of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria. Albert and Isabella had taken a keen interest in Marian pilgrimate sites during their rule, in an attempt to redefine the Spanish Netherlands as Catholic, in distinct contrast to the Protestant North. At the time of writing, Isabella had been a widow for almost one year and had publically assumed an expression of greater piety by taking the habit of a Poor Clare tertiary. Curiously, the work was also written about one year after the Archbishop of Mechelen, Jacobus Boonen, had taken office. Boonen would officially affirm the cult by endowing the chapel of Basse-Wavre with a new reliquary in 1628, and one wonders whether the present text did not play a role, however small, in this turn of events. The lack of any provenance marks or annotations allows us only to conjecture as to its specific purpose; whether it was intended to be presented in this form, to be submitted to the Church for approval to be printed, or to be deposited as a reference copy with a local church, monastery, or the Bishop, we cannot say.

As of September 2026, we cannot trace the current text in any public holdings. STCV only records two titles on Basse-Wavre, both later (1642 and 1721).

Price: €3,200.00

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