St. Joseph prayer intentions hit record with collaboration of French shrine, internet app

PARIS (OSV News) -- France has a special place to celebrate the March 19 feast of St. Joseph -- the Shrine of Our Lady of Graces in Cotignac, in the picturesque region of Provence.

Every year, during a novena in preparation for the feast, it invites people to submit prayer intentions on its website.

The sanctuary, which receives some 140,000 pilgrims every year, kicked it up a notch in the Jubilee Year and joined forces with the Catholic smartphone application Hozana ahead of the feast day.

During the novena that preceded the March 19 feast, 110,000 people submitted prayer intentions to St. Joseph just in a few days over the Hozana app. On the feast day, the intentions will be brought to Cotignac.

"St. Joseph is an incredibly powerful intercessor," Cassandre Verhelst, who supervises the English-language edition of Hozana as well as the St. Joseph novena, told OSV News. "We wanted to encourage as many people as possible to entrust their needs to him," she said. "His prayers have changed lives."

Founded in 2014 and available in four languages -- French, English, Spanish and Portuguese -- Hozana now has 2 million active users. It offers a platform to Catholic groups or communities that want to suggest prayers, temporary or permanent.

Throughout the year, Hozana indicates prayer routes, some of which are initiated by its team in collaboration with partners, priests, religious communities, Christian authors or shrines.

Thanks to Hozana, rather discreet local shrines suddenly take on a new dimension. The sanctuary in Cotignac was originally a modest regional place of pilgrimage that was built after an apparition of the Blessed Mother holding the Child Jesus, in 1519.

By 1637, it had already gained notoriety when a French cleric was officially sent from Paris by Queen Anne of Austria, wife of King Louis XIII, to pray there. The royals had no children, and the monk had come to ask for an heir for the royal family. Nine months later, in 1638, the future "Roi Soleil," Louis XIV, was born. He personally visited the sanctuary in 1660 to give thanks for his birth.

But Our Lady was not the only one bringing miracles to Cotignac. On Feb. 21, 1660, Gaspard Ricard, a 22-year-old shepherd, likely witnessed the arrival of King Louis XIV in his town. Just four months later, on June 7, while tending his flock near Mount Bessillon, he was overcome by the heat and thirst. At that moment, a venerable old man, identifying himself as Joseph, appeared and instructed Ricard in Provençal to lift a heavy stone, revealing a spring where he was able to drink. The young man was saved, and devotion to St. Joseph started to spread in Cotignac as he told the story of his survival.

Since then, the sanctuary has welcomed families, especially women who are praying for a child. Today, with the Hozana network, its reach has extended well beyond France.

"Those prayer intentions were not just being brought to St. Joseph," Verhelst told OSV News. "They were prayed over by more than 2 million Hozana users" before being entrusted to St. Joseph in Cotignac on March 19.

In addition to Hozana, there are many Catholic prayer apps that are expanding in France and enjoying growing success. Among them are GoConfess, the app that connects the faithful who want to confess to priests who can make themselves available to them; CredoFunding, which allows online donations to religious associations or institutions; and Ephatta, a homestay app for travelers and pilgrims.