Michael Kelly
To visit Europe’s holiest sites is to connect with a living tradition writes Michael Kelly
Pope St John Paul II, during a visit to the historic pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela in 1982, issued a passionate plea for Europeans to rediscover the Christian roots of the continent. “I send to you, age-old Europe, a cry full of love: Return to yourself. Be yourself. Discover your origins. Revive your roots. Revive those authentic values that made your history glorious and your presence beneficial among the other continents.”
The Pope’s words came to me in October last year as I walked the last 12 kilometres of the famous Camino De Santiago in to the historic cathedral of St James. I was part of a group of some 100 Irish pilgrims who were visiting some of the ‘Shrines of Europe’ as part of a pilgrimage organised by Joe Walsh Tours.
The genesis of the pilgrimage was to offer Irish people the chance to walk in the footsteps of some of the saints and holy men and women who have sanctified some of the most religious sites in Europe down the centuries.
Our first port of call was the Marian shrine of Lourdes nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees in south-western France.
Before the year 1858, Lourdes was a sleepy market town known largely as a place where mountaineers on their way to Gavarnie stopped for supplies. Today, it hosts more than six million pilgrims annually second only to Rome and the Holy Land as a centre of Christian travel.
Group leader
Our pilgrimage began in Dublin Airport where we boarded the flight to Lourdes accompanied by our intrepid group leader Dublin-woman Maura Ward. Maura has led many pilgrimages down the years but this was one of the largest ever with some 100 pilgrims. Lourdes is a short drive from the airport and after a much-needed lunch at the hotel, it was off to the sanctuary of Lourdes for the beginning of our pilgrimage and visits to some of the sites associated with the early life of the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous.
Bernadette was aged just 14 years old when she was chosen by the Mother of God to be the conduit for heavenly messages. On February 11, 1858, she was gathering sticks with her sister and a friend near the grotto of Massabielle when she experienced her first vision.
Her friends had ran on ahead and crossed the stream while Bernadette untied her shoes before crossing. She later recalled that she heard a noise like a gust of wind and she looked around.
She told a Church commission: “I saw a lady dressed in white, she wore a white dress, an equally white veil, a blue belt and a yellow rose on each foot.”
Just a few days later, on February 14, after Sunday Mass, Bernadette, with her sister Marie and some other girls, returned to the grotto. Bernadette knelt down immediately, saying she saw the Lady again and appeared to fall into a trance. On her next visit to Massabielle, February 18, she said that the Lady asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight.
Bernadette had been born in to relatively comfortable surroundings in 1844. Her parents, François and Louise, were millers and made a good living being renowned for the quality of their products. But, her father was not as good a businessman as he ought to have been and often allowed customers to run up large debts which eventually they couldn’t pay and the Soubirous family were left out of pocket
In 1854, when Bernadette was 10, the family had to move to a smaller mill. But disaster was to follow them. At the beginning of 1857 the Soubirous were evicted and had to find refuge in the Cachot, a dark room that had once served as a prison, but had been deemed unfit even for prisoners.
Along with our guides from Joe Walsh Tours, we made the short journey from the sanctuary area to walk in the footsteps of St Bernadette and visit the Moulin de Boly where she had been born and on to the Cachot where the family had been forced to seek refuge.
We were also able to visit the parish church of Lourdes that houses the baptismal font where Bernadette was welcomed in to the Catholic faith. The parish church was built to replace the ancient Saint-Pierre church, where Bernadette used to worship with her family. It was destroyed by fire in 1904.
Sensation
Despite protests from her parents, Bernadette did as the Lady requested and returned to the site every day for a fortnight. Her story caused a sensation with the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not Bernadette was telling the truth.
Over the course of the visions, the Lady taught Bernadette prayers and told her to encourage penance as well as asking for a chapel to be built on the site. On February 25, Bernadette later recalled: “She told me to go, drink of the spring… I only found a little muddy water. At the fourth attempt I was able to drink.”
Over the days, the crowds grew steadily and by March 4, some 8,000 people had joined Bernadette and waited for a miracle at the end of the fortnight. But nothing materialised, and Bernadette did not go to the grotto again until March 25, saying she no longer felt the “irresistible invitation”.
Bernadette recounted: “She lifted up her eyes to Heaven, joined her hands as though in prayer, that were held out and open towards the ground and said to me: Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou (I am the Immaculate Conception)”.
She did not understand the words, having no theological insight, but reported them to the parish priest who knew well that the term was a theological dogma that the Pope had proclaimed four years earlier in relation to the Mother of God.
After thorough investigation Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862.
Over the years, 69 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau as inexplicable. It is a place of miracles, but perhaps not the physical miracles one expects to see. “It’s those who think they are well that receive miracles at Lourdes,” one elderly man in a wheelchair told me. “They see their need of God here, that’s the miracle.”
No one I spoke to who was in Lourdes with a disability came with any expectation of a physical cure, but all agreed that they found peace, solace and comfort in the visits to the shrine. One gets the impression that Lourdes is the sort of place where people bring suffering and leave it before the altar and go back to their home countries renewed, their burdens eased.
Candlelight
One of the most moving experiences of any pilgrimage to Lourdes is the candlelight procession where people of practically every nation and way of life come together to process around the sanctuary and pray for the needs of a troubled world.
What’s striking too about Lourdes is the fact that no one shies away from suffering. The vulnerable and the powerless and very important people in Lourdes. Those living with a disability are top priority and there are special lanes along the roads for them to bypass other pilgrims. It’s remarkable in a world that prides strength and shuns weakness that Lourdes is such a counter-cultural witness.
But it isn’t all prayer. Lourdes has plenty of lively bars, cafes and restaurants where pilgrims and volunteers go to unwind in the evenings.
The Irish pilgrim experience in Lourdes is added to by the fact that many of the Joe Walsh Tours guides are Irish people living locally who are not only intimately acquainted with the story of Lourdes, they also know the local area very well. At the centre of the town is the Joe Walsh Tours office which serves as a point of information for any visitors or pilgrims.
After our days in Lourdes, we boarded the coaches to make the journey in to Spain and to the Basque Country. Our next destination was the Sanctuary of Loyola where St Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, was born.
Given that we have a Jesuit Pope in Francis, the visit was particularly appropriate. Here we were able to visit the childhood home of St Ignatius.
He was born in 1491, the youngest child of a Spanish noble family. Today, the shrine occupies a large site surrounding the original medieval tower house where Ignatius was born. This part of the shrine is known as ‘The Holy House’. It is also the place of his conversion in 1521. He retreated here after being wounded in battle in the Spanish city of Pamplona. During his months of recovery he developed a religious mission that eventually turned him into one of the Church’s most charismatic figures. Beside the holy house is the beautiful basilica built by the Society of Jesus in the 17th Century.
From Loyola, we made our way to the Spanish region of Cantabria and the picturesque coastal city of Santander. Situated beautifully along the seashore, it served as a wonderful base for a rest stop en route to Santiago de Compostela.
The city of Santiago de Compostela is home to the relics of St James the Apostle. Tradition holds that, after the death of Christ, St James made his way to the Iberian Peninsula and preached the Gospel there. After his martyrdom upon his return to the Holy Land, his followers transported his remains back to Galicia.
Today, more than 100,000 people visit the city each year on foot as part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.
Comraderie
While our pilgrimage was via coach, a few enthusiastic souls rose before dawn to walk the last 12 kilometres to the cathedral – the final destination for many of the pilgrims. One must admit to feeling somewhat of an imposter as pilgrims who had been on the route for many weeks greeted our fresh faces with a warm ‘buen camino’! The spirit of comraderie in the early hours was palpable as we could see tiny lanterns in the distance winding their way towards the city.
We arrived at the cathedral in time for the pilgrim Mass which is celebrated every day and joined the rest of our group for the celebration of the Eucharist. An iconic part of the Mass is after Communion when the famous Botafumeiro is lit and, suspended from ropes, swings across the cathedral as an enormous thurible expelling incense upon the faithful.
After a tour of the holy sites of the city, there was plenty of time to take in the sights and sounds and to sample some of the local Galician culinary delights.
After Santiago, we set out early the following morning in the direction of the Portuguese border and the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.
One of the inspiring things about the pilgrimage is the fact that the Joe Walsh Tours guides are steeped in the spiritual tradition and stories of the sites pilgrims visit. Like others, I have had the experience of visiting religious sites where the guides have little or no interest. Not so with Joe Walsh Tours. As we crossed the border to Portugal, our guide Elsa situated the history of Portugal within the rich Christian tradition of the region. Each city we passed en route to Fatima was another occasion for a story about Portugal’s devotion to the Catholic faith and special affection for the Mother of God.
The history of Fatima was forever transformed when three shepherd children reported in 1917 that they were receiving visions of the Mother of God.
On the thirteenth day of each month from May to October 1917, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto reported seeing Our Lady in the fields outside the village of Aljustrel near Fatima.
The children later said that her coming had been preceded by an ‘angel of peace’ who appeared in 1916. Lúcia described her vision of Mary as “more brilliant than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.”
According to Lúcia’s account, Mary exhorted the children to do penance to save sinners. She reiterated many times that devotion to the Rosary was the key to personal and world peace. At the time, young Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I.
Miracle
Word of the phenomenon soon spread and as early as the July apparition, it was claimed that the Mother of God had promised a miracle on October 13. What occurred, became known as the ‘Miracle of the Sun’. A huge crowd, including journalists and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iria.
The incessant rain had ceased and there was a thin layer of cloud. Lúcia, seeing light rising from the lady’s hands and the sun appearing as a silver disk, called out “look at the sun”. Witnesses later spoke of the sun appearing to change colours and rotate like a wheel.
Among the highlights of the days in Fatima were the visits to the Chapel of the Apparitions, Cova da Iria, Valinhos, Loca do Cabeco, homes of the visionaries, the old parish church and the Rosary Basilica where lies the remains of Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta are venerated.
There was also a chance to take a day tour to Santarem and Lisbon. Santarem is home to the Church of the Holy Miracle, scene of the famous Eucharistic miracles in the 13th Century, and the monument of St Irene.
In Lisbon, there was an opportunity to visit the Church of St Anthony and also the crypt which contains the very room in which the saint was born, the cathedral which still contains the baptismal font of St Anthony and the Church of Jerominos, probably the most beautiful example of Manueline architecture in Portugal.
One of the things that struck me most about our pilgrimage to the Shrines of Europe is the fact that it was a true pilgrimage rather than a touristic experience. Obviously, the accommodation, transportation and meals were of a very high standard, and yet a ‘pilgrim sense’ permeated the entire trip, thanks largely to the spiritual director Fr Liam Scanlan, a Kiltegan missionary, who led the religious programme with daily Mass the centrepiece.
Together with the professional local team Joe Walsh Tours had in place at each location, it served to make the pilgrimage a wonderful spiritual and enriching experience. As the pilgrims prepared to return to the airport for the short flight to Dublin, there was but one question: where is the next pilgrimage to?
To read more pilgrim experiences and memories you can log on to the Facebook page Joe Walsh Tours Pilgrimages and the Twitter account @jwtpilgrimages
If you would like to organise a pilgrimage for your parish or prayer group to visit the Shrines of Europe, or another pilgrimage, during the holy Year of Mercy, Joe Walsh Tours – organising such trips for over 55 years – will be delighted to tailor a perfectly organised pilgrimage tour itinerary to meet the precise requirements of your group. www.joewalshtours.ie info@joewalshtours.ie or call: Dublin 01 241 0800 / Cork 021 4277959 / Belfast 028 90994854.