Maria von Loe

As in many other places, Maria is also a very common girls name in the Loë family. In each of the last four generations, a daughter was given this first name in particular veneration of the mother of God.

In the family history, two further forms of this veneration exist:

– firstly in 1649 when, with the erection of the present day candle chapel, a refuge was created for the just begun – and already rapidly increasing in numbers – pilgrimage to Maria as “consoler of the sad” and the family donated the land for the candle chapel,

– on the other hand, during the erection of the present

– day castle chapel and dedication thereof in 1876 to Maria as “helper of Christianity”.

In the castle chapel we find Maria, together with Christ, who is sitting on her lap, illustrated in the apse. Simultaneously, the patron saint of one of the seven children of the builders of the castle chapel (Max and Therese Count and Countess von Loë) is thereby displayed, while the older brother, Hubertus Max and her younger siblings, Ludwig, Mathilde, Louise, Friedrich and Georg found their place beneath the mother of God.

In spite of her early death, she died the day she was born, on 5 October 1859, the little Maria quite obviously had a special place in her family, especially in the heart of her mother.