One evening around the year 507 A.D., Théodechilde, daughter of the Merovingian King Clovis saw a great light in a nearby forest. She headed for that place and drew near in time to witness a gathering around a dolmen, a stone sacred to the pagans. By the time she arrived on the scene the only ones left were a statue of the Virgin Mary guarded by two stone lions. This was clearly a sign that Mary was to take the place of the goddess Cybele, whose presence on earth was a sacred stone and who was usually accompanied by two lions. The torch of the Great Mother, Queen of Heaven, had been passed on to the Virgin Mary.

Princess Théodechilde let a chapel be built on the place with stones taken from a pagan temple, and founded a Benedictine monastery to guard it. She ordered the nuns to always keep an 'eternal lamp' burning before the miraculously appeared image. To this day two stone lions guard the entrance of the church, one is the original the other was stolen and replaced by a copy.(*1)

Our Lady of Miracles has granted many graces, among them stopping a devastating period of rains in 1816 and the cholera in 1832. During the Crusades two French men were captured in the Orient and chained in a dungeon. When they implored Our Lady of Miracles for help, she transported them, during the night, in an instant to Mauriac. Their irons can still be admired as ex-voti in the church.

By the 11th century, so many pilgrims flocked to Our Lady of Miracles that a bigger church was needed. (Even St. Dominic spent two days at her feet.) Yet the local priest was more concerned about enlarging his own house than the house of God. When he tried to do so by infringing upon the garden of the Queen of Heaven, she struck him and two of his workmen dead. In order to appease her wrath, the beautiful basilica, which stands to this day was quickly erected.

Throughout the Middle Ages, people wanted to be buried as close to an altar or holy place as possible, in order to ensure their soul's salvation. Hence a great cemetery grew up around the church of Mauriac. Religious plays reenacting Biblical stories were held in it and a rare lantern of the dead still stands there to this day.(*2) People used to light a candle in it each night to guide the newly deceased on their journey. Similar, though much bigger 'lanterns of the dead' remain in the Dordogne region, e.g. in Atur, Coussac Bonneval, and Sarlat.

Jacque Huynen and Ean Begg draw attention to the 10th century baptismal font in the basilica sporting a Templar cross and other symbols. To them these "esoteric" signs point to a connection between Black Madonnas and the initiation rites of Christian orders which used to practice alchemy. The three children who are portrayed during their baptism represent alchemists (who called themselves 'children') receiving initiation.(*3)

Yet much of what certain authors call "secret, esoteric knowledge" is perfectly mainstream. E.g. baptism is routinely referred to as a 'Christian rite of initiation' in which the old self dies with Christ and the new self resurrects with him. The teachings aren't hidden, though the words are "self-secret" in the Tibetan sense, i.e. meaningless for those who haven't prepared spiritually to hear their transformative message. An annual pilgrimage still draws many pilgrims.

*1: Jean-Robert Maréchal, Les Saints Qui Guérissent en Auvergne, Éditions Ouest-France: 2004, p. 115-6
*2: Ean Begg, p.198
*3: Ibid. and Huynen, p. 159-160