The origin of pilgrimage

Around christmas time in the year 1641, a simple merchant by the name of Hendrick Busman three times heard the mysterious call: „An dieser Stelle sollst du mir ein Kapellchen bauen!“ ( “At this place thou shalt build a little chapel for me!”) Busman was just praying on his daily way from Weeze to Geldern before a crucifix „Hagelkreuz“ that stood at a crossing near Kevelaer.

Hendrick Busman was poor, nevertheless he carried out this order. His statement on the events in the Kevelaer moor was recorded by the Synode of Venlo, the clerical verification authority formed in 1647.
 
From today´s point of view, the result was a surprisingly prompt clerical acknowldegement of the Kevelaer pilgrimage:
„I am married to Mechel Schrouse, who is about 50 years of age. I have been supporting the two of us with a small trade business. Therefore I am often forced to travel here and there. So around christmas in the year of our Lord 1641 I was coming from Weeze on the road near Kevelaer. At that time, there stood a Hagelkreuz. There I heard a voice that told me: ‚Op deze plaats sult gij mij een kapelleken bouwen! (“At this place thou shalt build a little chapel for me!”) I was surprised about what I heard and looked around in all directions, but couldn´t see anyone.
 
I walked on and forgot about that voice after I heard the first time.

Seven or eight days later I walked along the same way, and at the same place for the second time I heard that voice speaking the same words.

They were coming from near the Hagelkreuz, loud and clear.
What happened imposed great distress on me because I was thinking of my humble life and my poor means (…) Nevertheless, I had received the order, and therefore from my small earnings I wanted to save money (…) for the construction of a little sacred chapel.

Hereafter it happened one month before Whitson, that my previously mentioned wife Mechel, in an appearance at night, saw a large shining light with the presentation of a little chapel and inside it a small picture of the child she had noticed in the hands of two soldiers some time before.

They had brought along two paper pictures To our Beloved Lady of Luxembourg (...) The soldiers tried to sell these pictures, or one of them, to Mechel.

This did not happen however, because to her the price seemed too high… Because of that, the account of events seemed more credible.

I therefore instructed my wife to find the soldiers and look for the pictures. The soldiers had given the pictures to a Lieutenent, who at that time, was under arrest in Kempen. After the Lieutenant was set free, Mechel went to him and asked for one of these small pictures."

 
 
 

 



 
The picture was first kept and worshipped in Geldern. Hendrick Busman describes the start of the pilgrimage like this: „Later the Capuchin fathers and the parish demanded that the picture, in a procession, should be brought to Kevelaer. However, this for certain reasons did not happen. Instead, the parson of Kevelaer came on Saturday evening and quietly collected the picture. The next day he put it in the shrine that I had built according to the image my wife had seen in the appearance that night.
Right on that a day a large number of people from Geldern and other towns gathered around the shrine. Even miracles, some of which have been recorded, happened.

All what is said here took place in the way reported and is true and real. I, Hendrick Busman take it on my given oath (...) I give witness about it to increase the honour of God and and his holy mother and virgin.“ Hendrick Busman and his wife sealed this testimony of their faith with an inscription in the base of a pedestal.
 
There it can still be seen today under a coat of arms and a leaf twig, beside it a sentence from the Magnificat: An(n)o 1642 Hendrick Busman — Mechel Scholt gegev(en).
The depiction of the icon of grace being placed shows merchant Hendrick Busman with his wife, the parson of the Antonius church, Johannes Schink, a Capuchine pater from Geldern, one of the soldiers who had brought the picture from Luxembourg into this area, and first pilgrims. At this site where Hendrick Busman once prayed, today hundreds of thousands stop to pray. His name has vanished in history after he acted as a tool of the providence and had built the shrine and led the way to the icon of grace together with his wife. He died when the number of pilgrims long filled the candle chapel; the date of his burial is known: March 14th 1649.
 
Around the simple little shrine, following the example of Scherpenheuvel in Brabant, the hexagonal magnificent chapel of Grace ("Gnadenkapelle") was constructed in 1654. The little picture of grace has remained the same up to the present day. Besides architecture and painting, liturgy and music, again and again poets have tried to grasp the importance of Mary´s actions for our lives with the words of their time. He who looks at the picture of grace from the outside, will discover that he sees himself like in a mirror. In 1976, Wilhelm Willms wrote these lines: „wir sind im bild, wenn wir dich sehn im gnadenbild, maria. laß uns in deinem schatten stehn am gnadenort, maria.( „We are in the picture when we see you in the picture of grace, Mary. Let us stand in your shadow at this place of grace, Mary”).