Mags Gargan
Mags Gargan explores the foundation of the Knock Shrine Society
One of the main figures behind shaping the experience of today’s pilgrims at Knock Shrine was Dame Judy Coyne – the first Irish papal dame.
It was Dame Judy and her husband Liam, who in the 1930s revived national interest in the then almost forgotten shrine, spending a lifetime working to promote and develop the facilities at Knock, and making it one of the principal Marian shrines in the world.
Judy Begley, the youngest of 11 children in a Claremorris farming family, married District Court judge Liam Coyne in 1924, and settled into their comfortable life at Bridgemount House, near Belcarra, Co. Mayo.
Golden jubilee
In 1929 they attended the golden jubilee of the apparition of Our Lady at Knock (1879), and were surprised to discover that the Church had not given official recognition to the shrine, as the First Commission of Inquiry had come to no positive conclusion. However, it was not until they were on pilgrimage in Lourdes in 1934 that the Coynes started to consider how they could promote the profile of Knock Shrine.
“Each day we joined in the huge procession and as we did so, we asked ourselves again and again why we were not seeing the same thing happening in Knock… A strange feeling of a need to do something to promote it began to nag at both my husband and myself, and there was no getting rid of it.” (Providence My Guide, 2004)
In 1935, Judy and Liam founded the Society for the Promotion of Knock Shrine (Knock Shrine Society) and travelled the country distributing information leaflets and holding promotional lectures. They also planned to bring some order into the ceremonies at the shrine and to provide facilities for the care of sick pilgrims.
Together the Coynes set out to collect the facts then known about the apparition, and the first Knock Shrine Annual was published in 1938. This was the first of many books they published on Knock, and Judy remained its editor for 57 years.
Knock Shrine Society is a voluntary body, and great emphasis was put on the fact that the society’s work would be predominantly spiritual. The male members, known as stewards, wear a distinctive sash when on duty at the shrine and the female members, known as handmaids, wear a white uniform.
Under Judy’s guidance, the society’s membership continued to grow year by year, with 1,200 members by the centenary of the apparition in 1979.
Pilgrimages
Pilgrimages also grew from those on the traditional Marian feast days, August 15 and December 8, to almost every Sunday through the summer months, with vast numbers coming on pilgrimage by the 1950s.
Following the untimely death of her husband in 1953, Judy continued their work alone, making special arrangements for the thousands of sick people coming to the shrine from her home at Bridgemount, Castlebar.
The Dublin Pioneer Total Abstinence Association contacted Judy to arrange a large pilgrimage to Knock Shrine and, despite some resistance locally, she facilitated the 50,000 pilgrims who came, even though there was no running water.
During her lifelong involvement with Knock, Judy interviewed some of the original witnesses to the apparition, and supervised the search for cures as part of the Second Commission of Inquiry into Knock. In 1954, the Marian Year, Judy led the handmaids and stewards to Rome where the Knock Banner was blessed by Pope Pius XII.
In the 1960s, she again travelled to Italy to oversee the work of Professor Lorenzo Ferri who sculpted the original statues that stood on the gable end of the original Knock church.
Pressure
It was also Judy’s idea to arrange a papal visit to Ireland, particularly to Knock, when she read about the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land in 1964. She put pressure on the then Canon James Horan and the Irish archbishops to invite the Pope to visit for the centenary of the Apparition at Knock in 1979.
With her hard work and devotion to Knock Shrine, it is not surprising that Judy was honoured by the Vatican twice by receiving the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal – the highest honour that can be given to a woman – and the Dame of the Order of St Sylvester award, making her the first Irish woman ever to receive that honour.
The Order of St Sylvester was specially created to honour lay people who are actively involved in the life of the Church, and awards of the highest rank of Knight or Dame are exceptional. It was presented to Judy in 1997 by the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary in front of a large crowd in Knock Basilica.
Speaking at the ceremony Archbishop Neary paid tribute to Judy saying: “Her whole life was focused on and took its direction from devotion to Our Lady of Knock. Those who work with her are very conscious of her prophetic vision, her practical concern and dedication to the sick and invalids.”
Dame Judy remained working up until a few short days before her death in 2002, at the age of 97. She was buried at Guisden Cemetery in Belcarra, near her former residence, where a memorial was unveiled in 2009.
Memorial
Speaking at the memorial service her niece, Mrs Ethna Kennedy, who wrote the book Providence My Guide about her aunt’s life, said it was in Judy’s nature to shy away from publicity during her life but that “she ought to be remembered”.
“A lot of people are unaware of the great work Judy did over such a long time at Knock. Much of that stems from the fact that she didn’t want any publicity and didn’t want to take the credit for anything. The BBC were due to call one day and she sent someone who was in the house with her out to essentially run them away!”
Today the Knock Shrine Society continues Judy’s legacy by providing an excellent service for millions of pilgrims, especially the sick, elderly and those with disabilities.
Through the years, Dame Judy Coyne’s vision and tireless work to promote and develop Knock Shrine have endured throughout her life and beyond, and have ensured that she holds a place in the history of the Marian site as it prepares to meet the challenge of the next 135 years.
