Meerveldhoven, Netherlands

photo: Joke Visker

Our Lady of the Oak
(Onze Lieve Vrouwe ter Eik)

In Christ the King church, Kapelstraat-Zuid 20, 5503 CW Veldhoven, first half 15th century, ceramic, 38 cm.

Even though Our Lady of the Oak is not a Black Madonna, Eline Kinsbergen asked me to include her in this index, because she shares many Black Madonna leitmotifs. (Thanks Eline for the inspiration and information!) This Madonna expresses in such a unique, beautiful, and obvious way the union of Mother Mary and Mother Earth – that union which is such a big part of cult of Black Madonns. In many places a Mary  statue is venerated that is associated with a tree, but only in Meerveldhoven did they leave the tree standing and simply built the church around it. According to Joke Visker’s beautiful blog “Our Lady of the Oak in Veldhoven”, the veneration of the tree seems to date back to earlier times. For the Germanic tribes, the oak was a sacred tree. Under it, people prayed, sacrificed and judged. Gifts were hung on it with the request for healing.

photo: Joke Visker

Our Lady of the Oak still answers those requests. She and her oak are potent miracle workers, as attested by the many ex-voti hung in her tree. Granting miracles is almost a must for a real Black Madonna.

Early on, the influx to this Madonna in a tree that was so great that a separate road was built for them. The names Onze Lieve Vrouwedijk and onze Lieve Vrouwebrug refer to this pilgrimage route.

The origin legend of this earth mama recounts that the statue was found in 1264 in an oak tree by a farmer. He took it home, but she returned to the tree by herself twice or three times depending on the version you read (another typical part of Black Madonna legends). She had mud on her cloak from tramping through the fields by herself.

The villagers recognized this miraculous event as an indication from Mary that she wanted to be venerated in her tree. A simple chapel was built around it. I guess they couldn’t afford a big enough church to house the whole tree, so they trimmed it back a bunch to fit into their chapel.https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christus_Koningkerk_(Veldhoven)

Historical timeline:

1263, the order of Franciscans adopted the Marian feast of the visitation.

1264, presumed appearance of the statue whose first chapel was dedicated to the Visitation of Mary, a feast confirmed and established by Pope Urban VI in 1389.

1510 A.D., the first written mention of a statue located in an oak tree in Meerveldhoven.

1632, first record of an oak tree inside the chapel.

1648, the public practice of Catholicism was prohibited in Brabant. Protestants lived in the chapel.  They cut the sacred oak down and burnt it together with crutches and bandages that had hung on it as ex-voti.
The statue was saved from destruction and found its way to a castle in neighbouring Blaarthem. There it was in good hands and the (forbidden) pilgrimages continued.

1672, Catholicism was again tolerated and the statue moved to a house in Meerveldhoven, where it was venerated.
At that time, people also went to the place where the old chapel had stood and held services there. A few years later they came together in a tent made of linen hoods. These came from the carts and wagons of the pilgrims.

1683, the first clandestine church, an inconspicuous church barn, was founded in Meerveldhoven to accommodate the many pilgrims and the statue once more placed in an oak tree.

Around 1800, Catholics got the old dilapidated church ruins back.

In November 1800, the church was destroyed by a heavy storm.

1803, a new church was inaugurated. A felled oak tree with the statue of Mary was given a place behind the altar.  Soon, this church proved too small for the amount of pilgrims.

1889, a new neo-Gothic church was built, which became again too small after World War II.

1901, the oak tree fell over and was replaced by a new one.

1952, The present church was built with 1,000 seats and ample room for the “renovated” oak tree and its miraculous statue. The tree that's there now was a gift of the local beerhouse to the parish! Very quickly people started hanging ex-voti on it. 

It’s a little sad to some of us that the modern patriarchs created a church with what looks like two competing main altars each in their separate chapel, one for Christ the King, whom they dedicated the church to and one for Our Lady of the Oak. Many still have a problem with holding our heavenly king and queen together in their minds and hearts. The only advantage of this architecture is that pilgrims and visitors can come in during a mass at the King’s altar and chose to commune with the Queen in her tree instead without disrupting the mass they may not be interested in.

To this day, thousands of pilgrims visit every year.