The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Laghet

Notre-Dame de Laghet's story begins with a priest's quiet devotion and explodes into miracle in 1652. Father Fighiera's restoration of a neglected chapel set conditions that somehow allowed healing to occur. The theological investigation that followed was rigorous by Counter-Reformation standards—not credulity but careful examination. The site's subsequent history includes revolutionary destruction, hidden statues, and the transition from Carmelite to Benedictine care.

Father Jacques Fighiera was a priest of Èze who felt called to restore the ruined chapel at Laghet. In 1628, at his own expense, he rebuilt the roof, whitewashed the walls, leveled the floor, and installed a proper door. He announced that services would resume and served the chapel for twenty-five years without compensation.

In 1645, Bishop Palletis blessed a statue of the Virgin carved by the Parisian artist Pierre Moïse. It was placed in a church in Èze. Seven years later, on June 24, 1652, the White Penitents—a confraternity of laypeople devoted to works of mercy—carried the statue in procession to Laghet.

From that day, healings began. A leper found his flesh restored. A man imprisoned by Barbary pirates credited his escape to the Virgin's intercession. A girl possessed by demons was delivered. Pilgrims streamed in from Nice, Monaco, Ventimiglia, San Remo. Within eighteen months, thirty-six miracles were claimed.

Bishop Palletis was not credulous. He convened a commission of theologians, assisted by a lawyer and a doctor, to investigate according to the protocols established by the Council of Trent. Twenty-two cases were authenticated as genuinely miraculous. On December 26, 1653, he authorized public worship. The following April, he led the first official pilgrimage, joined by the Consuls of Nice, who funded a fountain for the pilgrims—still flowing today.