Our Lady of Grace at Scheut: Pilgrimage Cult and Pilgrims’ Badges

This essay offers a new perspective on the cult of Scheut with the identification of several pilgrims’ badges. The badges from Scheut form a welcome addition to the written documents in which the pilgrimage cult is hardly mentioned. The metal souvenirs reveal that the simple wooden statue of the Virgin was incorporated in a significant arrangement revolving around spiritual transformation, probably based on the example of Champmol. When miracles started to happen, Brussels’ authorities transformed Scheut into a cult that tied the house of Burgundy to the city, and Champmol seems to have provided a model they aspired to emulate. From the badges it becomes clear that the Carthusians worked in line with the magistrates’ ambitions when they modelled the cult site after Champmol.