Yep. The Chapel of Our Lady of Rugby. It’s in a big rugby-playing area in France, l’Ovalie. (I think I may have posted about this before, but there’s more info available now.)
After a local tragedy, the parish priest of Larriviere St. Savin decided that it was time something was done with St. Savin’s old half-abandoned Romanesque oratory. The chapel is dedicated to the memory of all fallen rugby players, and asks for God’s protection for all those playing the game.
The chapel includes four stained glass windows: Mary holding the Baby Jesus, who’s about to throw out a rugby ball which players reach for; the Child Jesus (or some child) with a rugby ball on the sidelines in front of his smiling mother; Mary holding a rugby ball while surrounded by pilgrims of all times (possibly representing rugby history, possibly local history), and Mary holding a fallen player in something like a Pieta.
A nice article about it with pictures.
Another nice article with more pictures.
Searching for “notre dame du rugby” or “our lady of rugby” will find you some very nice photos and even video of this tiny shrine.
It looks like the votive shoe and uniform thank-offerings are starting to take over the shrine! (A common but good shrine problem to have.) It just goes to show that popular piety is still there, in all sorts of forms, when it’s allowed to be.
There are apparently several small churches which are centers of devotion for bicyclists of various countries. The church of the Madonna del Ghisallo, along the route of a bike race in Italy, is the most important one, as Our Lady of Ghisallo was officially declared biking’s patroness throughout the world. (Man, nobody tells me this important stuff!!) In France, Notre Dame des Cyclistes (an old Templar church) is its national bicyclists’ shrine, and includes a museum. In Spain, Our Lady of Dorleta up in the Basque country is their shrine.
Oh, and if you were wondering who St. Savin is, he was Savin/Sabinus, a 5th century rich Spanish guy who became a hermit and an apostle of the Pyrenees. He was one of those guys who were strongly influenced by St. Martin of Tours, and spent time with St. Sulpicius Severus and St. Paulinus of Nola. There was another famous hermit of the same name in the 8th century, in the same area, but he had a totally different life story and was French. Anyway, good name.
