Our Lady of Aberdeen is a type of Madonna and Child statuettes copied from the Notre Dame du Bon Succès statuette located in Brussels. Such replicas are to be found across the North East of Scotland.
History
It is believed that the statue in Brussels may have been in Old Aberdeen as early as 1450. References to a statue in a Chapel at the Bridge of Dee in Aberdeen suggest that it may have been placed there by Bishop Gavin Dunbar of Aberdeen (1514–1531). [1] At the beginning of the Scottish Reformation (c. 1559) many religious objects from churches in Aberdeen and the St Machar's Cathedral in Old Aberdeen were given for safe keeping to Catholic sympathisers. It is claimed that the statue was kept in safekeeping by a Catholic member of the local Scottish nobility, George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly and Chief of Clan Gordon, at Strathbogie Castle until 1625. It was then smuggled to the Spanish Netherlands by William Laing, thought to be an agent for the Spanish Habsburgs, and given to Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and his wife, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, in Brussels. There is a reliable and well documented history of Notre Dame du Bon Succès in Brussels from that date until the present.
Locations
There are copies in St Mary's Cathedral, Aberdeen and in the Bishop’s House, formerly the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Aberdeen. Other copies include one in Buckie and one in St Peter's Church in Aberdeen.
Feast day
The Catholic Church in Scotland celebrates 9 July as Our Lady of Aberdeen Day.
See also
For historic details of Notre Dame du Bon Succès and Our Lady of Aberdeen see the papers by Ray McAleese – below. The monograph by Ron Smith (see below) gives a devotional account of beliefs about Our Lady of Aberdeen and Notre Dame du Bon Succès.