Miracles of the Grotto
Mother Mary with Stars
What is a Holy Grotto?
There are not a lot of Holy Grottos in the world. A Holy Grotto is considered a special place to visit because prayers and services are believed to bring real blessings to the pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken by a person or group for a religious motive .Pilgrims may visit a Grotto to be cleansed of their sins and to be cured of their illnesses. It is believed that spring water from the grotto heals people if they are sick and have faith.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes ( France)
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is a sacred ground in the town of Lourdes, France. Lourdes is considered a special place to visit because prayers and services are believed to bring real blessings to the pilgrim. Pilgrims may visit to be cleansed of their sins and to be cured of their illnesses. It is believed that spring water from the grotto can heal people if they are sick.
Lourdes in 1858 was an inconspicuous little French town on the Gave de Pau River at the foot of the Pyrenees, with around 4,000 inhabitants. One of them was a former miller named François Soubirous, who had fallen on challenging times. He and his wife Louise had six children. The eldest was their daughter Marie-Bernarde, known as Bernadette. Desperately poor, the family lived squashed into one small room.
Bernadette visited the grotto seventeen times and seventeen times she saw the Virgin Mary, though no one else ever did. Her story spread round the town like wildfire and the townspeople began to go to the grotto with Bernadette even though there was considerable skepticism, from the parish priest.
On February 25th 1848, the Virgin Mary told Bernadette to drink the water of a spring that flowed under her rock but Bernadette did not see a spring of water, Bernadette dug in the ground. Nothing happened, but a day or so afterwards the spring appeared and was flowing. Bernadette drank from the spring and washed in it and others did the same and the water acquired a reputation for healing properties.
This spring is still flowing today but at the rate of 32,000 gallons a day, but a scientific analysis of the water has found nothing remarkable about it. Go figure.
On February 27th, 1848, the Virgin Mary told Bernadette that the priests need to build a chapel at the site and have people come there in processions. Word of what was going on and was published in the French newspapers. Soon the crowds accompanying Bernadette to the grotto swelled to thousands.
The Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25 every year in the Roman Catholic Church, except when the day falls during the Easter Triduum. On the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary on March 25th, the Lady at last proclaimed her identity.
A total of sixty-seven miraculous healings have been officially recognized at Lourdes since 1858. However, there have only been four miracles since 1978, the most recent last year when an Italian woman was said to have been healed of acute rheumatism.
Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, MD
Blessed Grotto Spring water
The “Spring” at the National Shrine
Another miraculous Grotto where the water is reported to heal and save is located at the Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland (USA).
Our Lady of Lourdes of Emmitsburg, Maryland is just the sort of setting for a miracle: Officially these grounds made holy by association with a canonized Saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, who lived nearby. She was canonized in 1975 as the United States’ first native-born saint.
There are many that believe that the water has miraculous healing powers. At minimum people believe and felt that it is at minimum cleansing and healthy for the body and soul. In this case, there aren’t any officially documented miracles, but many have reported favors, graces and healings from praying while drinking the Grotto Water.
Drawn by tales of the Virgin Mary’s presence, they come from all faiths to the wooded niche that is the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes on the grounds of Mount St. Mary’s College. Last Easter, 1,500 people came for a non-denominational service despite a 3-inch snow cover. Most are expected to gather on the Western Maryland hillside clutching their rosaries, and empty plastic juice bottles for holy water. The water they seek rises from the spring at the oldest Mary Shrine in the original 13 Colonies, water they faithfully and sincerely believe can cure the sick.
A Baltimore psychiatrist believes the water cured his deafness. A documentary filmmaker came seeking the facts and reported visions of white lights and doves.
Jerry Caffrey, 44, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, says the shrine and the help of Monsignor Hugh Phillips, the grotto chaplain, showed him the way to faith and provided the strength he needed to kick his addictions.
“Every time I fall or am tempted, I go down to the grotto and say my prayers, get my soul in order,” he added. Divorced and living by himself, he is lonely, he said. “But when I go down there, the loneliness goes away.”
Former Archbishop of Baltimore Lawrence Shehan reported being healed of tuberculosis at the grotto. Seminarians have reported cures for eye problems and for carpal tunnel syndrome.
Baltimore psychiatrist Robert Ludicke had been operated on at Johns Hopkins Hospital for an ear condition that resulted in a loss of hearing. He said he applied spring water to his ear and was instantly cured of his deafness. “I don’t know if I’d call it a miracle,” he said. “Let’s say a favor was granted, whether coincidental or not.”
“The Mother of God is especially present in this place,” said Mr. Caffrey. “I know a lot of people who’ve experienced cleansing in their soul here.” He discovered the grotto on a walk while he was a patient at a nearby drug rehab center, he said.
Monsignor Phillips once said, “A lot of beautiful things happen up here.” Monsignor Phillips came to the Mount as a sixth grader and graduated from its prep school in 1927. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1931 and was ordained from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in 1935 for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He also received a Master of Arts degree from the Mount in 1935.
Following his ordination, he returned to the Mount for 32 years. He personally designed and directed the construction of the current campus library—which bears his name—raising the quality of its holdings and services until it was cited for excellence by the United States Department of Education. Besides serving as a professor of theology and church history at the Mount, he was a professor of philosophy, psychology, and church history at St. Joseph’s College in Emmitsburg, Md., from 1938-50. He also taught theology, psychology and medical ethics at the Catholic University of America from 1937-60..
Asked if Mary has appeared here, in this spot, Monsignor Phillips whispered, “Oh, YES!” and looked quickly around, as if the very words might spark a visitation.
Monsignor Hugh J. Phillips entered God’s Heavenly Kingdom July 11, 2004. (RIP).
There are the skeptics but “If you have faith, no explanation is necessary.”
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