The Little Story:
The bishop of Aix, Lazare, retained in the region a monk who had come from Palestine after a long retreat in Egypt with the Fathers of the Desert. Proculus, bishop of Marseille (380-430), welcomed John Cassian. He is certainly the initiator of monastic life in Marseille.
However, it is uncertain whether he was the founder of an abbey. The archaeological evidence of Saint-Victor dating back only to the end of the 5th century. A cult is organized on the site of the current abbey. It is around a tomb that we venerate and which tradition, once again, claims to shelter the relics of the eponymous Marseille martyr from the 4th century. Archaeological excavations of the crypts attest to the presence of a quarry exploited during the Greek era. Then also a necropolis dating from the 2nd century BC. Its vocation will persist into the Christian era. Traces of it were lost between the 7th century and the end of the 10th century, during the period of the Norman and Saracen invasions.
In 977, monastic life was reborn under the leadership of Bishop Honorat and the first Benedictine abbot Wilfred. This subjects the abbey to the rule of Saint-Benoît. In 1020, a Catalan monk, Isarn, became master of novices and undertook the major works. We owe him the construction of the first high church to which the tower (known as Isarn) belonged by which we access the church today.
The major altar was consecrated in 1040. From the end of the 1739th century to the 1934th century, the abbey was completely rebuilt according to the rules of the Romanesque builders. It is to Guillaume de Grimoard, then abbot of Saint-Victor, that we owe the fortification of the monastery. From the XNUMXth century and until the XNUMXth century, Saint-Victor enjoyed total hegemony over all of Christendom in the Mediterranean basin, from Catalonia to Italy. Gradually monastic fervor decreased and led to the secularization of the abbey in XNUMX by papal order. The Revolution transformed the church into a fodder depot, prison and barracks, which avoided its demolition. It was returned to worship under the First Empire and restored in the XNUMXth century. The church was elevated to the rank of minor basilica in XNUMX by Pope Pius XI.
Every year at Candlemas time an important pilgrimage takes place in Saint-Victor.
On the morning of February 2, a procession leaves from the Old Port towards Saint-Victor via Rue Sainte. The Black Madonna is kept in the crypts. She is dressed in her green coat and is presented to the crowd gathered on the square. The archbishop blessed her, celebrated mass and then went to the Navettes oven.
