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marian
anniversaries April
 April 28
Frau Stifterin, Ettal, Bavaria, Germany
After a protracted struggle with the Pope, Emperor Louis IV
returned from Italy to Bavaria. The story goes that on the road to
Augsburg, in the Graswang valley near Obberammergau, his horse genuflected
three times, marking the spot where on April 28, 1330, he was to found
Ettal Abbey—a monastic complex housing Benedictine monks and nuns as
well as Teutonic Knights. Louis donated to its church a marble statue of
the Virgin he brought from Italy. The Founding Lady soon became an object
of pilgrimage. After the original Gothic buildings burned in 1744, they
were rebuilt in the Baroque style, with spectacular stucco ornamentation.
One of many abbeys that closed during the secularization of Bavaria in
1803, Ettal returned to the Benedictine Order in 1900. In 1920, Pope
Benedict XV named its church a Basilica Minor.
Sources:
 | the Abbey's site, www.kloster-ettal.de. |
|
en.wikipedia.org |
| Rex Temple, afghanistanmylasttour.com/2009/12/12/monastery-and-murals/ (photo) |
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Also commemorated this date:
| Notre-Dame des Sept-Douleurs, Belgium. Confraternity approved, 1519. |
| Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, Pissila, Sanmatenga, Centre-Nord,
Burkina Faso. Parish church consecrated, 1991. |
| Madonna della Castagna, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy (Our Lady of the
Chestnut). Apparition, 1310. |
| Madonna delle Grazie, Castelvetere Sul Calore, Avellino, Campania,
Italy. Square of snow marked spot where the Madonna wanted a church,
c1000. Festa. |
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