Easter Sunday Mass was celebrated at ‘La grotte de Sainte-Baume’ at the weekend to formally re-open the cave of Saint Mary Magdalene after its being closed for 10 months’ work. I hadn’t realised that this is Christianity’s 3rd most holy shrine after Christ in Jerusalem and St Peter in Rome. It is a memorable place to visit, reached by a wide pathway, the ‘Chemin des Roys’ which has lots of steps leading up to the grotto. You can climb further, to Saint Pilon, the little chapel at the top of the massif, where legend says the saint used to go to pray, but that is a stiff climb on a very rocky path.
Here is a post on the background to the saint’s presence in Provence and some forensic work carried out by scientists on the relics which are kept in the crypt at the basilica in nearby Saint Maximin: https://aixcentric.com/2018/01/08/is-this-the-face-of-mary-magdalene/
Directions: https://www.saintebaume.org/access/grotto/
This info is probably only useful to people within 10km at the time of writing, but hopefully useful to all once the lockdown is over.
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