Lourdes in Euclid

Bernadette Soubirous had Marian apparitions 1858 in Lourdes, in the south of France. I saw the grotto at Notre Dame Indiana, and the one by Bellevue Ohio, and miniature ones at parish churches. Before yesterday, it was years since i was at the shrine in Euclid Ohio. That time, they had a Mass for the Domobranci killed after World War II ended. Tito's communists had a blood lust. The shrine in Euclid opened in 1926, and is surprisingly listed as the oldest replica. The land had been the Harms vineyard, the family sold the land to the Good Shepherd Sisters.  They were there til 1952, and then the Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity.

One of the crosses on the candle covers have broken off, and now sits on the dish with St. Lucy's eyes.

Beneath a statue of St. Patrick, but who are the Clients of St. Patrick?

collection pipe for donations

a narrow elliptical pool, almost an aureola

two crosses near the grotto

stone arch that begins the Way of the Cross

The number of stations have been standardised at 14, but they have varied. Here before #1 where Pilate turns over Jesus, there is a scene of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The grounds have suffered some deterioration, especially around the stations of the cross. The fences are banged up, some trees have fallen. The wood of the stations is rotting too, and fallen off at spots. The colors of the polychromed plaster(?) have faded, but the insults are the bb gunshots on the glass on some of the stations lower on the hill.

It is a place conducive to quiet study, and devotion.