Sask. shrine honours Our Lady of Lourdes

The faithful have pleaded intercessions at this site for 129 years

Our Lady of Lourdes – February 11

- WCR photo by Ted Fitzgerald The new chapel at Our Lady of Lourdes shrine at Laurent De Grandin.

By TED FITZGERALD
Special to the WCR
St. Laurent De Grandin, Sask.

Ashrine and grotto honouring Our Lady of Lourdes has attracted devoted pilgrims to an historic site in central Saskatchewan for 129 years.

This year is of particular interest since it is the 150th anniversary of the appearances of Mary to youthful Bernadette near her home in Southern France.

The story of the Canadian shrine began with the arrival in 1879 of lay brother Jean-Pierre-Marie Piquet at the nine-year-old settlement of St. Laurent on the South Saskatchewan River.

Sent to assist Father Vital Fourmond at the mission there, he noticed that a local spring resembled that at the grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes.

Personal experience

Brother Jean had grown up not far from Lourdes and had met St. Bernadette, just four years his senior. Following the apparitions, he frequently visited the cave to meditate on the words of Our Lady,"I am the Immaculate Conception."

There, between Feb. 11 and July 16, 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to young Bernadette Soubirous. Her words confirmed the doctrine concerning her birth that had been proclaimed just four years earlier and resulted in great interest in devotion to the Mother of God and the enormous popularity of her French shrine for pilgrims ever since.

In view of his familiarity with the shrine, it seems logical that Jean, when considering a religious vocation, should have chosen to enrol in the missionary Order of Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). This decision eventually led him to St. Laurent, on the west bank of the river about seven kms downstream from the village of Batoche and nine kms northeast of Duck Lake.

Sisters' boarding school

The mission prospered, and in 1883 welcomed teaching sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus who had been asked by Bishop Vital Grandin to establish a new boarding school at St. Laurent.

Brother Piquet constructed a grotto near the spring and, encouraged by Father Fourmond, began to attract people to pray at the site. A picture of Our Lady of Lourdes was later replaced by a statue to become a part of the little shrine. Over the years, a number of miraculous cures have been associated with prayers offered there.

Sadly, the serenity of the riverside village and its growing mission was permanently shattered when an armed confrontation at Duck Lake on March 18, 1885 triggered the Northwest Rebellion and led to the defeat of the Metis inhabitants by the army at Batoche.

Many residents fled or joined the resistance, while the area clergy were arrested and the FCJ sisters took refuge in the Batoche rectory.

The battle ended with the surrender of Metis leader Louis Riel and the dispersal of the local people.

The St. Laurent mission and church were saved from being torched by the rebels by the heroic actions of Baptiste Hamelin.

St. Laurent settlement was decimated. Some of the residents came to repose in the village cemetery, the results of the deadly Duck Lake encounter. The newly arrived sisters, following their release from virtual captivity, found a new home in far-off Calgary and other residents drifted elsewhere.

Such devotion

One thing endured however, and the devotion to Our Lady at her Saskatchewan shrine continued and has persisted for these many years. The old log chapel was replaced by a replica after its destruction by fire in 1990 and the site is faithfully maintained by volunteers who came from as far away as Prince Albert with equipment and supplies to ensure the attractiveness of the site.

The grotto, enlarged and altered several times over the years, continues to attract pilgrims to seek the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes - the Immaculate Conception.

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