Miracles at the National Shrine and Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Euclid, Ohio (I)

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France has a connection to a Lourdes shrine in Ohio; 64 years after Our Lady first appeared to St. Bernadette, the National Shrine and Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Euclid, Ohio, had its beginnings. In 1922, on pilgrimage to Lourdes, 3,986 miles away from Euclid, the mother superior of the Good Shepherd Sisters was inspired to build a replica of the grotto on the land donated to the congregation 10 miles east of Cleveland.

On May 30, Trinity Sunday, the nuns promised God they would build the shrine. Four years later, in 1926, again on Trinity Sunday, Archbishop Joseph Schrembs of Cleveland dedicated the Euclid shrine. Two years later, the grotto was named a national American shrine. Then, in 1952, the Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity — the Trinitarians — took over the work of the shrine.

In France, a Dominican priest asked the sisters if they could help with the English-speaking pilgrims. “As a thank you, he gave them relics that they brought back,” recalled Sister Phyllis Ann, today’s shrine administrator, to the Register. One is a piece of the rock that Our Lady stood upon when she appeared to St. Bernadette. “That’s where you see the pieces of stone that the water flows over at the Grotto; there’s also one embedded in a piece of marble on the side so that people can actually put their hands on it.” Near the statue of the Immaculate Conception, the slivers from the Lourdes stone are embedded in a sculptured marble book that looks like an old Communion book. And a third piece of the Lourdes stone “is in the gift shop,” along with “a little piece of St. Bernadette’s shoulder bone.”

“We are considered a satellite of Our Lady of Lourdes in France,” Sister Phyllis Ann explained.

“There was an apparition of Mary here. It’s part of the story that over the years has been pushed back or forgotten,” she added, before recounting the story. “This used to be a grape farm owned by the Harms family, very good Catholics. Julia Harms was married to the eldest son. And every day, she and her friends would go at noon to where the grotto [now] is, and they would say the Rosary there while she was pregnant. One day, Mary appeared to her and said that she would give birth and that the child would live, but that she, Julia, would pass away. Lo and behold, she gives birth to a little girl. Before she does, she tells her husband about the apparition and makes some promise that if the family should ever let this property go that it would be for a religious purpose dedicated to Mary.” Two weeks after she gave birth, Mrs. Harms passed away.

In 1919, when the Sisters of the Good Shepherd brought girls they cared for from Cleveland to the farm to pick grapes, the superior considered this a good place for the young women to live amid the peace of the outdoors away from the city. She got the property from the Harms family, and it was dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes.

For some long-forgotten reason, the sisters were not able to continue overseeing the shrine; but, providentially, the Trinitarians arrived in the United States to teach Italian immigrants. They have administered the shrine since 1952.

Throughout the years, the piece of Lourdes stone embedded in marble at the feet of Our Lady in the grotto, with a steady stream of water flowing over it, has become more than a replica of the healing spring in France.

Joseph Pronechen, October 22, 2023

Adapted from www.ncregister.com