The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-14
ANNUAL
PILGRIMAGE
T.
Thousands Visit Shrine
Near Carey.
NUMBERS ARE HEALED
Annual Event is Yearly Be-
coming More Popular.
Pilgrimage is Very Similar to Those
Made Centuries Ago Although
the People are Very Different.

Catholic shrine Of Our Lady of Con-
ISOLATION at Carey, Thursday. From
o'clock in the morning, when the
| first mass of the day was celebrated,
until dark. the little chapel, in a
niche whose altar stands the statue
of the Blessed Virgin, was crowded
with worshipers.
The elimination Of the weeks feast
in the annual pilgrimage yesterday
taxed to the utmost the hospitality
Of the little village. The parish Of
Our Lady OF Consolation has but 100
families. Yet a hospitality was Of
fered adequate for simple needs. Ev-
cry home was open to the pilgrims.
Led by twenty-five priests chant
ing Latin phrases, 1000 pilgrims, by
the light of the wax candles they
bore, picked their way Wednesday
night through the streets of Carey
The closing moments of the twi-
| light hour had come. In the flicker
ing glow of the tapers, 1000 lips
were seen moving in prayer. One by
one the beads of each pilgrims ros-
any were told: HAL, Mary, full Of
grace. the Lord is with thee. Blessed
are thou amJng women"
A traveller might Journey far-to
the shrine OF st. Anne, near Quebec,
to the shrine OF GaudalOup, near the
| City of Mexico-to witness scene
further removed from the robust life
of modern America nearer approach
ing to that pale, mystic spirituality
Of the middle ages.
It is true that the pilgrims 10 the
shrine of Our Lady Of Consolation at
Carey differ widely In outward ap-
pearance and dress from the pilgrims
of medieval Europe. They do not
carry the staff and scrip of those
who sought Jerusalem. They go,
not hungering and athirst, begging
through the heat and dust from hab-
itation to habitation. The men and
women of Wednesday nights march
and yesterday noon-nour procession
are Americans, we'll clothed, we'll
fed railroad excursionists.
And yet beneath all outward
change an inward sameness exists.
The spirit of the Carey pilgrimage is
the same spirit that actuated the men
and women OF thousand years ago.
All day thousands stood at the
door OF the little chapel, each await
ing the moment when some depart
ing worshiper would make room.
Not pilgrim turned away from
Carey without first kneeling down
before the altar OF the Lady OF Con-
ISOLATION.
Among them were the halt, the
sick and the blind. Weary and
heavy laden, they came to the
shrine asking that they be made
whole.
Il have never insisted upon the
miraculous cures that are said to be
effected here" said Father MitzeI
in his study. 81 have never laid
especial emphasis on that phase oI
our shrine.
/, "To myself, however, I can say
4 that | have seen in yonder little
chapel the afflicted mace whole
7 The occurrence has become ordinary
I to me, matter almost of my daily
4 life. You ask me how this can be.
| answer that | do not know. Meth,
er do | know how Christ healed the
. leDrous, raised the dead walked the
, Sea Of Gallilee, was resurre2ted from
the grave, | do not understand. And
yet these things are So
A woman, followed by little gr
four years old, told in a voice o.
joy how the child, paralyzed hanC
l and foot, had been made to walk
= at the shrine. y
The Instances of miracles wrought
multiply. On every hand Thursday
. the pilgroms told of cancers healed
I rheumatism banished, sight restored
hearing regained.
The statue, under which these won
ders are accomplished, is a uuain
figure of the Virgin Mary, carved o
wood, about three feet in height an,
attlred in a robe and stiff mantle o
gold cloth. The right hand holds
s,epter; the left supports an imag
of the divine child. The statue is
replica of the famous statue in tn
n church at Luxembourg. A piece o
the miraculous original is suspende
from the neck of the copy in a sill
yer capsule
Despite the enthusiastic faith O
the pilgrims, Carey saw none of tina
emotional disturbance that ordinaril
charatterizes the religious revival
There was no shouting, no beating q
breasts. There was neither cata
lepsy nor trance. Tho masses wer
sung as in any other Catholic churcl
The responses were made as quietly
The letter Of the service was observe
|| with tho cnn,o aUauuacc of copp, ~.