Kapel Maria van Liefde | De Rips

At Burg. van de Wildenberglaan 46 in De Rips is a Maria chapel in the garden of a residential house. It is a new chapel from 1994. It was built in response to a near-death experience of the resident of the house in 1990. She had a vision of Mary wanting to be honoured as Mary of Charity. The chapel designed and built by Bernard Ploegmakers and Jo Michielsen, came about partly thanks to appeals via Omroep Brabant to make building materials available. Austrian architecture was used.

The chapel was erected in a corner of the garden of the Ploegmakers family's contracting firm with residence 'Den Dorscherstee'. The small octagonal brick building (diameter 3m; height 4m) has a broken gabled roof with German slate roofing. The octagon symbolises 'fullness' and 'infinity' and is also reflected in other elements of the building. The chapel has four windows and an entrance door with a beautiful iron fence. Its ironwork, made by Juul Baltussen, refers to the source of life: ears of corn from which a heart arises, which in turn gives life to roses. The sandstone keystone above the entrance contains the initials 'IB', Ineke and Bernard (Ploegmakers). Next to the chapel is a signboard reading 'Mary of Charity'. The chapel was consecrated on 1 May 1994 by the parish priest of De Rips, Wim Blok.

Sources:

P.J. Margry, From database pilgrimage and places of pilgrimage in the Netherlands, Meertens Institute, Amsterdam

W. van Lierop, T. Thelen, Langs velden en wegen: Monumenten van deotie in Gemert-Bakel, 2006, Drukkerij Vos, Gemert