A PROTESTANT ON THE WONDERS OF LOURDES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 36, 31 December 1886, Page 17

A PROTESTANT ON THE WONDERS OF LOURDES.

(From the Sam, Fra/ncisco Chronicle.}

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Friday, July 16, 1886, was the thirty-eighth anniversary of the eighteenth and last apparition in the grotto of the rocks of Massabielle of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette, the poor peasant child of Lourdes. The wonderful and interesting legend of the apparitions of Lourdes has so long passed into history, and is so widely and universally known throughout Christendom, that he who has not heard of the fountain of the grotto of Lourded, in the Pyrenees, and its real or supposed miraculous cures, must most assuredly have been leading a Kip Van Winkle existence in some backwoods forest during the last quarter of a century. I shall not linger, therefore, to enter into any details regarding its origin, but proceed at once to give your readers a short account of a most remarkable cure effected by the use of its waters on the 16th of July, and of which I, with hundreds of others, was a witness. Since my arrival at Lourdes I have been much impressed by the remarkable evidences to be seen of the intense faUh of thousands of people in the supernatural origin of the fountain and the miraculous cures of its waters. Being on the spot, I was extremely anxious to witness some clear proof, as it is but natural one should desire in such matters to see and vouch for one's self. But I certainly had no idea that my wish would soon be gratified. Though the weather had been very wet and unpropitious for several days past, still the anniversary feast had attracted, as is usual on that day, hundreds of pilgrims and visitors from near and far, to the now world-famous grotto. Among the many arrivals on that eventful morning, my attention was quickly drawn to a group who had driven up close to the grotto in a carnage containing a sick person lying at full length on a mattress. She proved to be a young woman, 25 years of age, though looking much younger. 1 have seen many sick persons in my lifetime, but I can truthfully say that I do not remember ever seeing one more corpse-hke in appearance. She was lifted gently from the carriage and carried into one of the bath-rooms adjoining the grotto. The water from the fountains is led into them through iron pipes, and they are so arranged that sick persons can be easily immersed in the water in its natural state and temperature, which is icy cold. It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when she was carried helpless and apparently almost lifeless into the bath-room, and in less than an hour afterwards she was able to walk unaided from the batbs to the grotto, a distance of a couple of hundred feet. Though able to stand and walk, she was still evidently very weak, and was placed sitting in a hand carriage in front of the statue of the Virgin in the niche over the grotto. She remained there for over two hours, hundreds of persons continually circling and pressing round, to see and question her. She kept her eyes fixed on the statue and seemed full of joy and gratitude for her release from a life of pain and agony, and when at last the time came for her departure for home, I shall never forget the deep look of affection and gratitude in those, large, dark eyes, as, with tears streaming down her thin , wan cheeks, she gave one last long look upward to the beautiful face of the Virgin. There was something painful in the sight—it seemed like the tearing away of a loving child from its mother's arms. When she reached the carriage in which she had arrived— in which still lay the mattress on which she had lain during her journey to the grotto, one of the Fathers asked her if she still felt cured and able to walk. "Yes, certainly, Father," she smilingly answered, and immediately got out of the invalid chair in which she was sitting, and in presence of the large crowd of persons assembled to see her off, walked and moved easily to and fro, and, unaided, climbed into the carriage. " This is undoubtedly a most remarkable and miraculous cure," said a gentleman standing near. "It is certainly a very wonderful and instantaneous cure," replied the priest, " but before it can be pronounced upon as a miraculous cure, it will have to be submitted to ibu medical tests and examinations usual in such cases, and the ' Alimony of the physicians who have attended the case and other v. . sses will have to be procured." I shall now let the Countess de Puy, an English lady married to a French nobleman, and who has for years devoted herself wholly to the care and service of the sick brought to bathe in the waters of the grotto, relate in her own words what took place on this occasion in the bath-room. As this devoted lady has had great experience in the batbs, it is left to her judgement in a great measure whether it be prudent or not to allow the sick person to enter the water. " The sudden shock," she said, in reply to my question, "is certainly very

trying, as the water is so cold. Still, I have never known of an accident Securing in the baths, although I have seen persons afflicted with almost every ailment our poor humanity is heir to placed in them. But this young woman seemed in such a dying condition that 1 was afraid to allow her to be placed in the bath, so we simply sponged her body over with water. We had hardly finished doing so when she said she 'felt that she could stand by herself. I told her to try, and she immediately stood erect without support, and asked to be dressed, as she felt she waa able to walk. We did not know how to comply with her wishes, as she had been brought without shoes or stockings, or any other article of clothing except the long white gown m which she had lain in the carriage wrapped up in blankets. Fortunately we had a pair of slippers in the room, and some kind tnends ran quickly and brought the other necessary articles of clothing. She was no sooner dressed than she walked into the adjoining room, and said she felt hungry, and would like something to eat. In the meantime her uncle and brother, both priests, were sent for, and when they saw that she was able to walk they burst into tears, and were completely overcome with emotion, so that they were unable to join in and recite the customary prayers of thanksgiving." "You have no doubt seen many wonderful cures, madame, during the years you have waited here upon the sick ? I asked. "Tea 4 "she replied. "I have seen strange things happen, especially'during the grand national pilgrimages, when we sometimes have as many as 500 and 600 sick persons to bathe, and have to continue on through the whole night. I have seen at those times persons placed in the bath, one putrid mass of sores from head to foot come out completely healed, with scarcely a trace upon their skin I have seen persons suffering from the most frightful-looking ulcers and cancers come out of the bath instantaneously cured " But all the cures are not so sudden and remarkable I "Oh no sir The greater number are gradual, and many are not cured until after 'repeated baths, while others do not experience any relief at all. But I have never known of any case having grown worse through the use of the baths. On the contrary, they seem, if not cured, to gain at least greater courage and resignation to bear their cross cheerfully for love of their Divine Model and Master. The number of sudden and instantamous cures of the most chronic cases and worst forms of disease which have taken place by the use of this water, and which have been examined and testified to by the most eminent medical men of all shades of opinion, as surpassing the powers of nature and all known medical skill and science, would alone fill a goodly sized volume So clear, in act, and luminous and well attested is the evidence of hundreds of these sudden and extraordinary cases, that the fact of such cures having taken place by the use of the water of this wonder-working fountain is now no longer called in question by even the most rabid opponents of all belief in the supernatural. Tbat such cures have occurred here is admitted, but they are attributed to the force ot pagination and to hidden and secret laws of nature, which have so far baffled the investigations of science. Well, even so, my assertion holds good for I iud4 that any place in the universe where the powers of the immaginat4 Le so string and the undiscoverable law. . o nature : so powerful, that the blind at once see, the crippled and the halt and bedridden suddenly get up and walk, is evidently one of the last wonders of the day, and well worth crossing the ocean to see. « It is my wish," said the beauteous Lady the child beheld in her vision, " that a shrine be built over this spot." The shrine, a beautiful Gothic church, with its tall shrine pointing hea^ n , ward - "^ over the grotto and is already one of the most frequently and richly adofned sancuaries of the world . Four hundred thousand Communions, states the Bishop in his pastoral, are distributed here to the faithful annually. Six hundred banners of the fiuest and richest workmanship, presents from all parts of the world, w.th the flags of all nations, bang gracefully from the groined ceiling and slender eyes and mind open to see, and not like those who, having eyes, see not. ____-^_^