AN estimated 10,000 people were in Clonakilty last Thursday and Friday to attend a pilgrimage of the relics of St Bernadette of Lourdes.
Fr Tom Hayes, who described the occasion as historic, said the Church of Immaculate Conception was filled to capacity, while hundreds more crowded around the entrance for both masses.
He estimated that 5,000 people attended the formal liturgy, which included a mass for the sick, while 5,000 more came to pray for special intentions and to venerate the relics of St Bernadette.
A lot of the people in attendance had either been to Lourdes – a place that is believed to be a place of miraculous healing – or have an affinity with St Bernadette.
To this day, the incorruptible body of Bernadette can be seen at Nevers in France while the relics – a piece of Bernadette’s bone and some of her hair, both of which were taken during a medical examination before she was canonised – are contained in the reliquary at Lourdes.
Fr Hayes said people came from all over West Cork and further afield for this really special occasion in the life of the parish.
Leon Moloney, Bandon and Lily Nyhan, Ballinadee venerate at the relics of St. Bernadette of Lourdes in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Clonakilty. Photo: Martin Walsh.‘So many thousands of people from around Ireland have gone to Lourdes to visit Our Lady’s Shrine and to visit Bernadette in Nevers in France but, on this occasion, St Bernadette came to visit us.’
He said a lot of people put in a lot of preparatory work and the parish was very grateful to everyone who helped to make the visit possible.
‘Hundreds of people – not just in Clonakilty but beyond – helped to ensure that this was a special, peaceful and prayerful visit,’ he said.
The elderly, and people with medical conditions, were shown tremendous care, at the event.
Throughout the two-day pilgrimage there was a sense of calm abiding and faith at the Church of Immaculate Conception.
It was with the help of the volunteer stewards that the church filled and emptied, and filled again, in an easy and gracious manner.
Aside from the quiet rumble of prayers, the silence in the church was interspersed with the divine sounds of Darrara Church Choir, the Clonakilty Folk Group and the Clonakilty Church Choir.
Lots of people shared their stories and their intentions, including Dubliner Jacqueline Maguire, who now lives in Rathbarry.
Jacqueline, who is a Maynooth theology graduate and a wheelchair user, has been to Lourdes 54 times.
As a child she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and her first visit was arranged by her parents at the age of nine.
‘I went again when I was 17, and I have only missed one year since, and that was in 2020 during Covid,’ said the 63-year-old.
‘I have had my own physical miracles – nothing church accredited,’ she says with a smile. ‘I have come back from Lourdes on one stick, and can walk across a floor.
‘Lourdes keeps me going. It’s life-orientating,’ she said.
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