By Connie Cissell | Special to the Herald
Approximately six million pilgrims travel to Lourdes, France every year. They worship in the basilicas and tour the place where the Blessed Mother appeared to little Bernadette Soubirous in the mid-1800s. One of the most impressive buildings there is the underground basilica which seats thousands. Banners hang from the many arches that support the building. The huge banners bear the likeness of saints from all over the world. Blessed Damien DeVeuster is one of those depicted.
As of May 5, Molokai’s Blessed Marianne Cope is one of the holy men and women whose likenesses decorate the basilica. Along with her banner there is a large plaque that explains who she was and her contributions to the sick, marginalized and oppressed.
A group of 22 pilgrims, including 10 Sisters of St. Francis from Syracuse, Blessed Marianne’s home diocese, and Hawaii, made the trip to Lourdes to see the banner raised. They were led by Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers, an organization based in Syracuse dedicated to service at Lourdes.
Sister Patricia Burkard, general minister of the Sisters of St. Francis, said she never dreamed that she would get to Lourdes, much less to see a banner of Blessed Marianne among the 80-plus displayed in the underground basilica.
“Blessed Marianne and St. Bernadette were contemporaries,” Sister Patricia said. “Both brought people to healing.”
Franciscan Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, Blessed Marianne’s biographer and director of her cause for sainthood, was especially delighted to make the trip, her first to Lourdes.
“The feeling of deep reverence experienced when visiting the grotto where our Blessed Mother appeared so many times to St Bernadette cannot be justly described,” she said. “I was struck by the thought that our Blessed Mother had really appeared there body and soul in person so many times. Surely she is aware of the visitors coming who reverence her and pray for intentions to take to her Son, Jesus.”
Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the apparitions at Lourdes and the 125th anniversary of Blessed Marianne’s arrival in Hawaii.
Hawaii Franciscan Sister Alicia Damien Lau, who traveled to Lourdes to see the banner raised, said being there brought thoughts of Mother Marianne.
“Mother Marianne had volunteered her life for the poor and vulnerable inhabitants of Kalaupapa. She did not seek self-glorification, but instead had ‘a hunger to do the work of God.’ As I looked into the faces of the many volunteers who were the caregivers of the frail and sick, whose faith had brought them to Lourdes, I saw the same motivation in their faces,” Sister Alicia said.
The story of Blessed Marianne, well known in Hawaii and in Syracuse, has now traveled to Lourdes and is available to all the pilgrims who travel there.
Connie Cissell is the editor of The Catholic Sun, newspaper of the Diocese of Syracuse.