Testimony of Father Roger Mbiyavanga, CSsR
On July 30, 2024, I made a wonderful discovery in a 12th-century church, Saint Etienne de Sirod, parish of Val-de-Sirod, deanery of Champagnole, diocese of Saint-Claude, in the French Jura: an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, surmounted by a cross, dating back about thirty years, hanging from a column on the right side of the central nave. When I tried to find out how and by whom this icon had come to this region, little visited by the Redemptorists, but currently served by the Premonstratensians of Congo, no one remembered it.
A month later, after touring the surrounding villages, an octogenarian woman confided in me that some thirty years earlier, the Redemptorists of Dijon had preached a mission in this region and had left two icons of the Virgin Mary there as a memento of their visit: one placed in the church and the other hanging in the parish hall. The most surprising thing was that, during the renovation of the interior of this church, declared a historic monument in 1946, some people wanted to bury these icons in a warehouse; however, one of the faithful admirers of this work of art of exceptional spiritual beauty asked that it be returned to the church. On an auspicious occasion, while dedicating a novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which concluded on June 27, 2024, with a pilgrimage with the icon of Our Lady, accompanied by some devotees, to the chapel of St. Joseph of the parish of Saints Cyrus and Juliet in Champagnole, I made this discovery on July 30, 2024, during the Mass for the deanery of Sirod. Since then, whenever I visit this region, I urge our brothers in Rome to seek donations of icons of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to distribute, with a brief explanation of their history and devotion, to all who receive them.
This morning, June 8, 2025, in the confessional of the church of Saint Germain l’Auxerrois in Mièges, also in the Jura, a 92-year-old priest from the diocese of Saint Claude approached me. After learning that he was in the presence of a Redemptorist, he told me the story of a mission led by the Redemptorists in 1989. Father Théodule Rey-Mermet and three other Redemptorists from Champagne-au-Mont-d’Or preached the mission in this region for a week. They left some signs and then continued on to Clervaux Abbey. Having fallen ill in 2023, I implored Our Lady to help me. Thanks to her intervention and in gratitude to God, I commit myself to spreading her devotion and enthroning her Icon in the families, churches, and chapels of this region and wherever I go. We even began our novena on June 18th with some faithful devotees of Champagnole, uniting our prayer intentions with those of all the devotees of Our Lady of Perpetual Help around the world for peace and justice in our countries. We will be in communion with our Redemptorist bishops, who will gather in Rome on June 27, 2025, to celebrate the great feast that will conclude this time of grace.
Father Roger Mbiyavanga, CSsR.
