statue was solemnly crowned by the authority of Pope St. Pius X. Local villages, which had never lost the custom of resorting to Foy on annual pilgrimage or in lime of trouble, renewed ancient fervour.
Contacts with some of the affiliated shrines of Our Lady of Foy, 110 in Europe and seven in America, have been to sonic extent renewed. In 1934 thirty thousand pilgrims witnessed a pageant welcoming back to Foy twenty-two replicas of the statue made from the original oak. Neither have miracles been wanting — at Foy an instantaneous recovery of sight; from elsewhere cures have been reported through application of a medal. The log, which had hidden the image for a length of time, to judge from the style, not above two hundred years, did not belong to Cities. He was employed by a boat-builder of Dinant, who had bought a fine old oak, el& feet in diameter, from the Lord of Celle.
It proved a had bargain for his trade. Gilles, when he felled it, found the timber worm-eaten, and they agreed to chop it up for firewood. The statue was noi their only discovery. With it was a tress of girl's hair, quite fresh. a quantity of mysterious black dust, and a number of translucent St ones of a sort still found locally. The latter were offerings, of children maybe, and the tress the gift of a country lass to the patroness of her childhood's play, before she went off to a convent.