Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Notre Dame
Religious site in Indiana, United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is located at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States, and is a reproduction of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France. The current Grotto was built in 1896, replacing a wooden grotto built on August 22, 1878. An artificial rock cave, the Grotto is used by its visitors as a sacred space for prayer, meditation, and outdoor Mass.
41°42′11″N 86°14′25″W | |
Location | University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, U.S. |
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Type | Lourdes grotto |
Material | Stone |
Beginning date | Spring 1896 |
Opening date | August 5, 1896 |
Dedicated to | Our Lady of Lourdes |
Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., the French Holy Cross priest who founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842 on a tract of land in Northern Indiana, had a lifelong devotion to Mary. He named several structures on the nascent campus after the Blessed Virgin Mary, and, seeking to attract Catholic pilgrims to Notre Dame, he constructed a replica of the Portiuncula—a Marian chapel located in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi. After a trip to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1873, Sorin sought to create a replica of the Lourdes Grotto at the university's campus; the replica of the Grotto was constructed beginning in the spring of 1878 and was completed by the end of summertime. The replica was a wooden structure that sat atop a small rock wall, complete with several religious statues, and adjacent to the Church of the Sacred Heart. Less than three years after Sorin's death in 1893, a replacement for this first Grotto was announced.
The construction of the current Grotto began in the spring of 1896. Unlike the first replica, the current Grotto took the form of a rock cave, located downhill from the church rather than adjacent to it. Thomas Carroll, a Catholic priest, funded the construction, and the construction was overseen by local contractor John Gill. A natural spring was discovered during the construction of the Grotto, and the Grotto collapsed during construction. Construction was completed on August 5, and the Grotto was dedicated on Our Lady of Snows. Subsequent renovations have taken place, including one to fix a leak in the Grotto's ceiling and remediation following a large fire in 1985 that caused damage to the rocks composing the Grotto. A more recent renovation, in 2019, substantially re-landscaped the Grotto and involved restoration work on the statues present at the Grotto.