St. John's Erects Lourdes

Shrine on Queens Campus

About 200 students from St. John’s University, Jamaica, commemorated the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on Feb. 11 with a candlelight procession on campus from St. Thomas More Church to a newly completed shrine to Our Lady located in the Residence Village.

The impetus for the procession was the arrival of statues of the Virgin Mary – depicted as Our Lady of Lourdes – and St. Bernadette Soubirous, the French girl to whom she first appeared in 1858. The statues originally stood on the grounds of LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, L.I., now St. John’s Oakdale campus.

The new shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes on the Ja aica campus of St. John's University is made up of statues from the former LaSalle Academy campus in Oakdale, L.I.

Preceded by a student cross bearer and led in prayer by Father Timothy V. Lyons, chaplain to St. John’s School of Law, the group walked through the Residence Village to a site on the southern end of campus. All joined in the singing of “Immaculate Mary,” the same hymn that pilgrims in Lourdes, France, sing during evening rosary processions. At the new shrine, Father Lyons blessed the statues with water brought from Lourdes.

“A genuine sense of community was felt by all huddled together in the freezing cold, singing and praying,” said Father Lyons.

Pamela Shea-Byrnes, Vice President for University Ministry and University Events, explained that the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes has special significance to St. John’s University. It was on Feb. 11, 1936 that the University acquired the Hillcrest Golf Course in Queens as a site for future expansion, and it was on that date in 1954 that ground was broken for a new Queens campus. Subsequently, the first worship space on that campus was named Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel. After St. Thomas More Church was completed in 2004, the chapel was desacralized and renamed Lourdes Hall.

Father Lyons notes that a grotto, or enclosure, will be built around the shrine, thanks to a donation from the Class of 2003. Landscaping also will be added to encourage students to spend some time there.

“At Lourdes,” said Father Lyons, “Our Lady asked for prayers for sinners and care of the sick. Now, 150 years later, we maintain a loving sense of the Blessed Mother’s care and presence at this special place in the Residence Village.”

A “Lourdes Initiative,” in which students will work among the sick at Lourdes, is planned for the end of the spring 2007 semester. The trip will also include a visit to the motherhouses of the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity in Paris.

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