Storied Places

Pilgrim shrines were places of healing holiness and truth in early modern France. By analyzing the creation of these pilgrim shrines as natural legendary and historic places whose authority provided a new foundation for post-Reformation Catholic life Virginia Reinburg examines the impact of the Reformation and religious wars on French society and the French landscape. Divided into two parts Part I offers detailed studies of the shrines of Sainte-Reine Notre-Dame du Puy Notre-Dame de Garaison and Notre-Dame de Betharram showing how nature antiquity and images inspired enthusiasm among pilgrims. These chapters also show that the category of ''pilgrim'' included a wide variety of motivations beliefs and acts. Part II recounts how shrine chaplains authored books employing history myth and archives in an attempt to prove that the shrines were authentic and to show that the truths they exemplified were beyond dispute.