Item 10 - Solemn Opening of a Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at Rochestown

1 p.; clipping

A clipping of a newspaper report documenting the formal dedication and blessing of the newly constructed Lourdes Grotto at the Capuchin Franciscan Friary in Rochestown, County Cork. The article provides physical descriptions of the structure (built on an avenue leading to the monastery church, rising thirty feet high, replicating the sombre cave, the niche of the apparition, a spring simulation, and a railed altar enclosure). It describes the dedication ceremony led by Most Rev. Dr. Cohalan (Auxiliary Bishop of Cork), featuring music by the Greenmount Industrial School Band, a procession with the Children of Mary from the Convent of Mercy (Passage), and a Solemn High Mass celebrated at the grotto altar by Father Cyril, O’Sullivan OFM Cap., assisted by Father Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. (Rector of the College). The clipping is taken from ‘The Irish Catholic’ (22 August 1914).

The clipping is badly creased and is frayed at the edges. Careful handling is required.