A NEW “LOURDES"

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 302, 16 September 1933, Page 18

A NEW “LOURDES"

Belgium Has “Visions”

By two o'clock on a certain day In August 120,000 pilgrims were in or around the once peaceful village of Beauraing, in Belgium. This huge pilgrimage was the sequel to a series of "miracles” which have made Beauraing famous. Many believe it will become the Lourdes of Belgium. It all started last November when four children claimed that on several occasions the Virgin had appeared to them at a shrine in a school garden (states a “Sunday Chronicle” correspondent). These visitations lasted about a month, but when the children told of no further appearances the pilgrimages ceased. Then recently there were driven to the villages an unemployed labourer named Tilmant, who could not walk owing to a serious injury affecting-his back. 'Tilmant visited the shrine in the school garden, and he, too, told of the appearance of the Virgin. He claimed to be cured, and that the Virgin told him a secret which would be manifested on August 5.

So great was the influx that the police were forced to forbid any vehicle to enter the village itself. One hundred and twenty gendarmes

on special duty controlled the passage of the pilgrims. I Only those who were very ill were admitted to the actual grotto. Others were ordered along b"y the gendarmes, with the continual cry, “Circulez, circulez.”

Some, on arriving at the outskirts, went back by another route and joined up again at the end of the long procession waiting to pass by the shrine. Mingled with the sound of hymns and the cries of devotion could be heard loudspeakers requesting • the crowd to keep calm, to halt or to move on, or telling them times of the various excursion trains. When Tilmant arrived there were remarkable scenes. At the grotto people pressed forward to try and touch bls hair and face. He knelt and prayed, and afterwards revealed the secret message that he said the Virgin Mary had confided to him.

“The Holy Virgin,” he proclaimed, “wishes you to build a great church on the other side of the convent, and to hold a yearly pilgrimage on May 18.” While he spoke there could also be heard tljp endless supplications of parents praying for the recovery of their children and sobbing at times when their feelings overcame them.