Heiligenleithen

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Black Madonna at Heiligenleithen, Austria

Our Lady of Einsiedeln

Copy of Our Lady of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, in the Einsideln ‘pilgrimage church’ (Wallfahrtskirche) at 8 Heiligenleithen, a hamlet 3 minutes by car from 4643 Durndorf, sculpted by Johann Urban Remele in 1753. Certainly open during holy mass on Sundays at 9:30 a.m.

The chapel was built from 1697 to 1699 as a pilgrimage church in honor of Our Lady of Einsiedeln. At some point, in order to spread devotion to the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, an abbot of the Einsiedeln monastery had 18 copies of their famous Black Madonna made and distributed around Europe. This may be one of those.¹

It is said that in the door frame to the chapel in Einsiedeln, Switzerland one can make out what is said to be the fingerprints of Jesus when he came to consecrate the chapel of his mother. In parting, he blessed the chapel by laying his hand on the door frame and the imprint remained forever. Similarly, in Heiligenleithen there is the imprint of a hand on the door frame. During the Reformation, the rumor was spread that the latter was the imprint of the Devil’s hand. Local Catholics took that notion and spun a couple of stories around it: One claims that the Devil came to steal the statue. When he saw how beautiful Mary’s face was, he got so angry that he decided to destroy the whole chapel, but he couldn’t do it. All he could do was leave the mark of his hot hand on the door frame.

heiligenleithen_church.jpeg

The other version is that when the Devil came to steal the Mary statue, she came alive in his hands and held on to the door frame with such force that he couldn’t take her. The place where she held on is still visible to this day.

These stories were long forgotten until a saintly priest and hermit, Father Othmar Lustenberger, came to visit in 2005 and talked about them.

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