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Above the lovely valley of Emmitsburg, situated high on the Mountainside, where nature displays itself in all its wild and picturesque glory, sits the National Shrine Grotto of Lourdes, a shrine which traces its linage to the very beginnings of the spread of Catholicism in America.

Indelibly linked with Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the Shrine is one of the oldest American replicas of the revered French shrine, dating to about two decades after the apparitions at Lourdes (1875), although the site had already been in use for more than seventy years as a place of prayer and devotion.

This holy mountain sanctuary of historic importance has been devoutly tended thought the years and attracts thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world for prayer and meditation.

_____THE STORY OF OUR LADY'S GROTTO_____


Father JOHN DUBOIS and the GROTTO

After the Revolution and the constitutional grant of religious freedom, Father John Dubois, a refugee priest from France, came to this area. This priest, who later became Bishop of New York, 1794. On St. Mary's Mount he built, in 1805, St. Mary's Church at the site of the present Grotto parking lot. For over a century this church was a beacon calling the faithful to Mass from the Valley and a reminder to them to keep the Faith.

After all, very few parishes in these United States can say that they have had uninterrupted priestly service for 235 years. Very few can say that their forebears were taught by such holy people. They are the spiritual children of the Blessed Mother Seton. On the lower terraces, Father Dubois began the first building of Mount Saint Mary's College and Seminary in 1808.

Several hundred yards back in the mountains, behind the site of Dubois' church, is the famous Grotto, the most ancient Mary-shrine in continuous existence in the original thirteen colonies, on which was begun in 1875 the first Lourdes Grotto in America.

There is a legend that Dubois, on one of his pastoral journeys, was attracted by a light on the mountain and found this blessed spot, one of the loveliest in the world, and there erected a rude cross. Those of a more practical mind may surmise that Father Dubois was seeking the source of the stream which flowed out of the ravine into the valley below. In any event, John Dubois found the Grotto-site, a dell of breath-taking beauty. It has been said of Lourdes that, even though Our Lady had never appeared there, it would be worth a trip from the other side of the world just to see the natural beauty of the spot. The same is true of the Mountain Grotto.

Just what did John Dubois find on his day of discovery? The stream, rushing down the steep ravine, divided and flowed on both sides of this mound, especially at the time of the spring freshets. With the passing of time, the earth had been washed out from beneath the great, gnarled roots of the oak. A recess or grotto was thus formed underneath the great trunk and the thick roots which overhung the bed of the stream. In summertime when the stream was low, one could enter the grotto and find there a rustic room. Here John Dubois erected his cross, the symbol of the holy work he was undertaking. This was the original Grotto.

MOTHER SETON and THE GROTTO

Blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton was the next holy person to love the Grotto. She came in the year 1809 to the Mountain where, before moving to the Valley, she and her little band of pioneer sisters lived for six weeks near the Church and the Grotto. And, after Mother Seton moved to the Valley, the Grotto was to her the most loved spot on the mountain.

The first statue of Our Lady was placed in the Grotto in Mother Seton's time. Seated on the rock "known as hers," Mother Seton would also teach catechism to her sons and to the children of the parish.

Truly Mother Seton loved this Grotto. It entered into her daily thoughts, conversations and writings. In a letter to Father Brute', she prayed for "one only heart, clear for my thoughts as the stream of your Grotto."

http://www.emmitsburg.net/grotto/index.htm

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