Notre Dame de Liesse (Our Lady of Joy) has been a site of marian pilgrimage since the 12th century. The current church, now a minor basilica, was built in the 13th & 14th centuries, probably replacing an older church. Liesse was a favorite pilgrimage destination for French royalty, visited by Louis VII, Charles VI, Charles VII and others. Devotion to Our Lady of Joy spread throughout France, particularly Normandy where there are a number of churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary under this title. She is also venerated in Belgium, Canada, and Malta. The Jesuits spread the devotion to French Africa in the 19th century. One of her famous devotees was Oscar Wilde, who wrote to his friend Robert Ross from exile in Berneval after his release from prison:
I am going tomorrow on a pilgrimage. I always wanted to be a pilgrim, and I have decided to start early tomorrow to the shrine of Notre Dame de Liesse. Do you know what Liesse is? It is an old word for joy. I suppose the same as Letizia, Lætitia. I just heard to-night of the shrine or chapel, by chance, as you would say, from the sweet woman of the auberge, who wants me to live always at Berneval. She says Notre Dame de Liesse is wonderful, and helps everyone to the secret of joy — I do not know how long it will take me to get to the shrine, as I must walk. But, from what she tells me, it will take at least six or seven minutes to get there, and as many to come back. In fact the chapel of Notre Dame de Liesse is just fifty yards from the Hotel. Isn’t it extraordinary? I intend to start after I have had my coffee, and then to bathe. Need I say that this is a miracle? I wanted to go on a pilgrimage, and I find the little grey stone chapel of Our Lady of Joy is brought to me. It has probably been waiting for me all these purple years of pleasure, and now it comes to meet me with Liesse as its message.

According to the legend, the statue was brought to Liesse by three Knights Hospitaller during the crusades. The three were brothers and a sixteenth century tradition relates that they were the sons of William, Sire of Eppes. Their names were Jean, Hector, and Henri. Sometime in the 12th century, while protecting the fortress of Bersabee, near Ascalon, they were captured in a Saracen ambush and taken to the Sultan of Egypt. The knights refused to convert to Islam, despite theological arguments and promises of gold and honor. Angels brought the three imprisoned knights a small statue of Our Lady for consolation. The Sultan decided to send his daughter Ismeria to the dungeon to convert the three knights but she was instead converted to Christianity by the miraculous appearence of the Madonna and resolved to help the brothers to escape. During their flight all four fall asleep and whle sleeping were miraculously transported to Northern France, waking close to the Eppes’ castle in Picardy where the knights built a church to house the Madonna. Ismeria was duly baptised in the Cathedral at Laon and in some versions of the legend went on to marry one of the brothers. This holy card was published in the late 19th century to raise funds for the restoration of the shrine.