Pope Leo XIV appointed Cdl. Robert Sarah, who is known for his strong defense of the Latin Mass, to preside over liturgical celebrations for the 400th anniversary of apparitions of St. Anne.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) -- The Vatican announced on Saturday that Pope Leo XIV has appointed His Eminence Cardinal Robert Sarah as his special envoy to preside over the liturgical celebrations to be held in July at the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray in France on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the apparitions of Saint Anne to the Breton peasant Yvon Nicolazic.
Sarah, the prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW), will conduct the celebrations in the Diocese of Vannes in northwestern France on July 25-26. He will celebrate a procession and pontifical Mass there on Saturday, July 26, at 10:30 a.m.
The African prelate is known for his strong support for the Traditional Latin Mass and liturgical reverence and his defense of the Catholic faith, including against LGBT ideology. Last year, he condemned Pope Francis' document endorsing homosexual "blessings," Fiducia Supplicans, accusing it of proposing "heresy." Francis later suggested that appointing Cardinal Sarah as head of the CDW was "a mistake."
Pope Leo XIV, for his part, recently stated that the Church has a “great need to recover the sense of mystery” in the liturgy.
READ: Cardinal Sarah: African Church gave heroic witness against ‘grave error’ of homosexual ‘blessings’
According to a Vatican News report published in French, Cardinal Sarah's visit will also coincide with the Saint Anne Festival, dedicated to those aged 16 to 30. In this Jubilee Year for the Universal Church, the shrine will be the starting point for young people traveling to Rome for their Jubilee celebration. They will join hundreds of thousands of other young people from around the world who will gather around the Holy Father.
The shrine is built on the site of Saint Anne's apparitions to a peasant, Yvon Nicolazic, who reportedly first saw the grandmother of Christ in 1623.
The shrine’s website recounts the history of St. Anne’s appearances to Nicolazic:
One summer evening in 1623, Nicolazic was praying to his "benevolent mother” when suddenly a torch lit the room. The phenomenon was repeated several weeks later. It was thus in a family home that St. Anne chose to appear first, discreetly, honouring what Pope John Paul II called the "domestic church" and inviting all of us to rediscover our home as the first instance of conversion and evangelization.But these early events are not yet apparitions, they are just the announcement, the prelude, and this is how St. Anne prepared Nicolazic's soul for her coming.
The first apparition took place at the fountain in August 1623. After work, Nicolazic was leading his oxen to water when, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Le Roux, he saw a majestic lady, radiant with light, smiling but she did not speak. The following month, St. Anne appeared many times to Nicolazic either at the fountain, or at his home, or near the cross on the road to Pluneret, since referred to as "Nicolazic's Cross.”
Encouraged by his rector, Nicolazic asked the majestic lady her name. She revealed herself on the night of July 25, 1624:
Yvon Nicolazic, fear not: I'm Anne, Mother of Mary. Tell your rector that there was once in the piece of land called the Bocenno, even before the village, a chapel, an earlier one dedicated to me in the country of the Bretons. Today it has been in ruins for nine hundred and twenty four years and six months. I want it to be rebuilt as soon as possible, and I want you personally to attend to it. It is God's wish that I be honoured here. God wants you to come there in procession.
Several apparitions followed until 1625.
