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The relics of St. Bernadette, touring the United States for the first time, will bring “the grace of Lourdes to parishes across the country,” said coordinators of the tour. The tour will include a five-day visit next month to Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Upper Manhattan as well as a stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Mass.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is organizing the pilgrimage of the relics in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, North American Volunteers, Hospitalité of Miami and the Order of Malta.
St. Bernadette of Lourdes received visions from the Virgin Mary in a cave near Lourdes, France, starting in 1858. She was born in Lourdes Jan. 7, 1844. When she reported these visions, civil authorities attempted to force her to recant her accounts.
She refused, and word spread about the cave she had found with miracle healing springs. Lourdes emerged as a pilgrimage site for faithful from around the world. Bernadette died April 16, 1879 at age 35, and was canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI. April 16 is her feast day.
On the U.S. pilgrimage, St. Bernadette’s relics are contained in a large reliquary created by master craftsmen of religious artistry at Maison Granda workshop in Spain in 2019.
The tour, which began April 7 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Miami, will continue with cross-country stops through Aug. 4, with the last visit scheduled at St. Bernadette Church in Los Angeles.
“This will be a very important event,” Father Gilberto Angel-Neri, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Upper Manhattan, told CNY last week. “We are preparing ourselves spiritually for the visit of the relics.”
St. Bernadette’s relics will also be at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday, May 23, from 3 to 7 p.m., according to Ken Craig, hospitaller with the archdiocesan chapter of the Order of Malta. Cardinal Dolan will celebrate the 5:30 p.m. Mass that day, and the liturgy will serve as “an Anointing (of the Sick) Mass in honor of St. Bernadette,” Craig said.
“We’re very fortunate to have the relics at the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and then also at the cathedral,” Craig told CNY this week, noting that because of ongoing pandemic restrictions, “we’re sort of bringing Lourdes to the people.”
Schedule for spiritual preparation and visitation of the reliquary of St. Bernadette to the faithful of the Archdiocese of New York at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 472 West 142nd Street, Manhattan:
Friday, May 20-Tuesday, May 24
Visit of the Relics of St. Bernadette to Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Novena of St. Bernadette in preparation for the visit, following each Mass, Wednesday, May 11, to Thursday, May 19:
Wednesday, May 11: Mass, 8:30 a.m. and Liturgy of the Word, 7 p.m.
Thursday, May 12: Masses, 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Friday, May 13: Masses, 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 14: Mass, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 15: Mass, 12 noon
Monday, May 16: Mass, 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday, May 17: Masses, 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Wednesday, May 18: Mass, 8:30 a.m. and Liturgy of the Word, 7 p.m.
Thursday, May 19: Masses, 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Friday, May 20
Healing Night for the youth and young adults
Bilingual Mass with Rite of Reception of the Relics of St. Bernadette, 7 p.m.
Holy Hour, 8 p.m.
Candlelight procession, 9 p.m.
Exposition of the relics, 3 p.m.-10 p.m.
Saturday, May 21
Rosary at Dawn and Cenacle of Prayer, 6 a.m.-9 a.m.
Bilingual Mass for the Sick: Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, 11 a.m.
Confessions, 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
Mass in Spanish, 6:30 p.m.
Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience in Spanish for adults, 7:30 p.m.
Exposition of the relics, 6 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sunday, May 22
Masses
7:30 a.m. Spanish; 9 a.m. Bilingual; 10:30 a.m. English; 12 p.m. Spanish;
2 p.m. Spanish.
Offering of 2,000 Hail Marys in the Grotto, 8:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Exposition of the relics in the Grotto, 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Pilgrimage Experience in English for children (in the school gymnasium), 10 a.m.
Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience in English for adults, 4 p.m.
Monday, May 23
Bilingual Mass, 8:30 a.m.
Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience in English for children, 10 a.m.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Afternoon of Reflection:
3 p.m. Exposition, Reflections and Confessions
5:30 p.m. Healing Mass
Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Tuesday, May 24
Farewell Mass and Sending of the Relics, 8:30 a.m.
