Sacred relics set to visit Shrewsbury Cathedral this September
Sacred relics which are more than 100 years old are to stop off at Shrewsbury and Chester as part of a tour of Great Britain.
The relics of St Bernadette of Lourdes will be brought to Shrewsbury Cathedral at 1pm on Tuesday, September 13, it has been announced.
They will remain at the cathedral until 9am the following day when they will be driven to Chester for the purpose of public veneration.
Members of the public have been invited to enter the venues to venerate the relics and also to offer silent prayers while in their presence.
The Rt Reverend Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, said: “We look forward to the visit of the relics of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes to Shrewsbury and Chester.
“The relics come as an invitation to prayer and to continuing conversion at the end of two years of pandemic and lockdown.
“This pilgrimage will lead us to remember those like Bernadette herself who in poverty and sickness are left on the margins of society.
“The powerful message of her life echoes the Gospel, reminding us of the value of every human person in the sight of Heaven.”
St Bernadette of Lourdes was a French nun in the 1800s, who as a young teenager, had visions of the Virgin Mary while living in the Massabielle grotto.
Between February 11 and July 16, St Bernadette witnessed 18 apparitions of a 'small young lady' in the rockface at the side of the River Gave in the village of Lourdes.
The lady she had seen told Bernadette to build a chapel at the site of the spring where people could come in procession, to wash and drink from – it became the most visited pilgrimage destination in Europe.
St Bernadette spent her later life at the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame at Nevers before she died of Tuberculosis at the age of 35.
The relics involve fragments of her two ribs, kneecaps, muscle from the right thigh, and other muscle, as well as skin and hair tissue which have been kept in a reliquary.
The relics of St Bernadette will be in England, Scotland and Wales from September 3 until September 30.
The dates and venues of the tour have been agreed by the bishops of all three countries – and besides cathedrals and major churches – will include a visit to Wormwood Scrubs Prison in West London, St Mary’s University in Twickenham and several hospices.
There will also be an ecumenical event involving the relics in Liverpool.
