The 29 SSCC brothers and sisters, together with the accompanying team, taking part in the Poitiers Session 2026 arrived in Belgium on July 11, the second stage of an itinerary that began in Paris and will later take them on to Poitiers. The first stop of the day was the Shrine of Our Lady of Montaigu (Scherpenheuvel), the most visited of Belgium's four Marian shrines, with 800,000 pilgrims a year. Here we were welcomed by our Belgian sister Hylde Reynders sscc, who received us with great warmth and will accompany us during these days.
This place, whose basilica was built starting in 1609 on a hill of ancient medieval Marian devotion, holds a very special connection to the history of the congregation: it was here that, in 1873, Saint Damien of Molokai said goodbye to his mother before departing for Hawaii, in what would be his last earthly meeting with her. Mother and son made the pilgrimage on foot at night to the shrine for one last prayer together before the Virgin; the account of Damien's sister-in-law, who witnessed the scene, describes a sober farewell — a simple handshake — yet charged with a restrained emotion that Damien could not entirely hide.
In this deeply meaningful setting, Quentin Huillard sscc, a religious of the Province of France currently completing his doctorate in Leuven, offered participants a conference on Mary as mother and as refuge.
Fr. Huillard proposed reading Damien's farewell not as a cold gesture, but as the moment when Mary takes over from the saint's biological mother, becoming his most intimate mother. He recalled that, later in Molokai, Damien would entrust his health to the Virgin, making her his refuge in the face of his fear of contracting leprosy.
Building on this insight, the speaker invited the religious present to ask themselves whether, having left their own mothers to embrace consecrated life, they have sufficiently welcomed Mary as their new mother and guide in the life of prayer. The conference concluded with a shared time of prayer, in which participants prayed while meditating on Mary as mother and refuge in the face of temptations, fears, and doubts.
Afterward, we celebrated the Eucharist at the Shrine of Our Lady of Montaigu, presided over by Edmar Aparecido de Oliveira sscc, of the Province of Brazil-Paraguay, who, on the feast of Saint Benedict, highlighted the theme of work, prayer, and humility, also connecting it to Saint Damien.
07/12/2026