History of Carfin Grotto

As early as 1893, while a student at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, Father Thomas Taylor had visited the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Thereafter devotion to the Immaculate Conception became a guiding force in his life.  After his ordination in 1897 by every means in his power - sermons, lectures, lantern sliders and even by producing a handbook called 'Lourdes and its Miracles' - before the outbreak of the First World War. In addition he led small groups to the Shrine, many times, before national and diocesan prilgraimges became organised annual events in his country.

Father Thomas Taylor in the early 1920s

After his transfer to Carfin in 1915, Father Taylor's first taks was to inculcate in the hearts of his parishioners a greater love for the Eucharist by more frequent reception of Holy Communion. The elaborate processions which took place on Corpus Christi Sundays, concentrated the minds and hearts of those who took part, on the importance, in their own lives of Our Divine Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

In July 1920 Father Taylor, with a small group of parishioners, joined the Scottish National Pilgrimage to Lourdes. They returned with a fixed project in mind: they would build a small replica of the Lourdes Grotto at Carfin, on an acre of waste ground, across the road from the church - ground that had been purchased for the parish in 1908, by Father Webb, parish priests, and which had laid unused for twelve years. The plans were enthusiastically accepted by the parishioners and within a few months the marshy land was dug, drained and levelled. On 19^th September 1920, the site was duly blessed by Father Taylor. With fine appropriateness for detail, he invited Andy O'Donnell, one of the oldest miners in the village, to cut the first sod. Next day the work of building the Grotto began.

Father Taylor's written account in 1958 describes the progress of the work until 1923, 'The Catholic minor possessed a the combination of qualities required for the task: patience, endurance, faith profound; he lacked only the leisure. However, the time proved extraordinary propitious; a strike of almost a year's duration afforded him the long hours necessary to realise his dream. Summer came again and the autumn and the making of the Grotto embankment proceeded. The enclosed was levelled and the banks began to take shape. It was difficult and arduous work, and as the winter of 1921 came again the levelled area became a quagmire; the volunteers unable to work dropped off one by one, till one alone remained. Matters looked so unpromising that an urgent appeal was made to the Little Flower of Jesus. A relic of the saint was inserted at the spot which the workers should reach. On the following Monday, they returned and the work was completed within a few months. At the special request of the Lourdes pilgrims, water, conveyed by a pipe from the main water supply outside the Grotto, bubbled up among the stones, at the foot of the niche.'

A large gathering of pilgrims process through the Grotto

A local ex-miner donated the marble statues of Our Lady and Saint Bernadette, and on Sunday, 1^st October 1922, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Carfin Grotto was dedicated to our Lady of Lourdes. The day coincided with the silver jubilee of the Saint Therese of the Child Jesus who was to play an important role in the story of the Grotto. Over 2000 people, it was reckoned, attended the ceremony.

On 29^th April 1923, an event of significant importance took place in Rome. The Venerable Therese Martin, the French Carmelite nun known to the English-speaking world as the 'Little Flower of Jesus' was beatified. As one of the chief witnesses at the Tribunal for Beatification, and also because he was the official translator into English of the saint's autobiography, Father Taylor joined the Lisieux pilgrimage to Rome. On his return to Carfin, a small statue of the Little Flower was set up in the Grotto. A number of people - including some priests - were of the opinion that veneration to the relic of Blessed Therese might lessen devotion to the Mother of God. Their fears soon proved groundless. Almost immediately the number of pilgrims multiplied.

The increasing crowds of 1923 made the extension of the Grotto imperative and a letter from Archbishop Mackintosh in September confirmed this view. Permission was received by Father Taylor to purchase another five acres of land for the enlargement of the Grotto. On 21^st January 1924 the extension work began. With a will the workers began their arduous taks and very soon, from nearby Cleland and elsewhere, 100 and more workers offered the help.

Father Taylor preaching at the Grotto

The reopening of the Grotto took place on Easter Monday 1924, and was marked by the arrival of 2000 pilgrims from Dundee, and over 1000 from Father Taylor's home town of Greenock. But as of yet there was no rest for the workers. There was still much to be done, inside and outside the Grotto, in preparation for the annual Eucharistic procession, along the streets of the village on Corpus Christi Sunday, 22^nd 1924.  Father Taylor was informed by the police superintendent that someone (then un-named) has invoked an obsolete Act of 1829, whereby ther proposed procession through the main street of the village was illegal: legally, clerics dressed in the vestments of their office, taking part in such a procession, were liable for a heavy fine or term of imprisonment.

The first Corpus Christi procession in the Grotto, 22nd June 1924, in place of the banned street procession

The prohibition of the Eucharistic procession through the streets of Carfin ultimately led to the repeal of the last penal laws then on the Statue Book. In conclusion, it should be put on record that the Protestant community living in Carfin parish, was not responsible for the prohibition. The police intervened because of representations made by a Lanarkshire member of Parliament. His moment of glory was short-lived  for he was heavily defeated in the next General Election, by a Scottish Presbyterian minister, who spoke generously in the final debate on freedom of worship for all denominations. One month after the suppression of the procession, His Eminence Cardinal Bourne of Westminster, on his way to the Eucharistic Congress at Amsterdam, interrupted his journey to find out what happening at Carfin. According to the local press the pilgrims numbers 50,000.

After the Canonisation of Saint Therese in May 1925, the inauguration of her shrine took place in the Grotto. Unlike the Statues of Our Lady, Saint Bernadette and the Holy Child Jesus, all three of which had been donated by two villagers, that of Saint Therese was erected by public subscription, to allow even the poorest to donate their mite. From this year onward, Saint Therese was recognised as the second patroness of the Grotto.

In 1926 Father Taylor purchased another field, here additional shrines could be erected and soon as the land was prepared. The first of these was Saint Joseph, unveiled and blessed in 1927. The Statue was donated by an elderly lady from out with the parish.

A section of the large crowds who came to the Grotto in the early days

On May Day 1927 10,000 pilgrims were present when the statue of Saint Anne and the Child Mary was enshrined - the gift of the Catholic community of Quebec. In the meantime, a group of around 100 workmen were completing the Shrine of Our Lady Star of the Sea. A statue of Our Lady Star of the Sea - the gift of a clerical friend of Father Taylor. The lake on which the statue stood was shamrock-shaped: the first section of the lake was  dedicated to Saint Patrick, the Second to the Venerable Margaret Sinclair, who had come to the Grotto before entering the Poor Clares as a Postulant. A fortnight later the Calvary scene was unveiled and blessed. The cost of the bronze figures was defrayed by an anonymous pilgrim who had previously donated many useful gifts to the Grotto.

On Sunday 14^th August the statue of Saint Joachim, father of Our Lady. All these early marble statues - except the Calvary scene, sculpted in France - were made in Italy, and were presented through the efforts of a Scottish convert setteled in Montreal.  'The last dollars' he claimed 'were subscribed by a generous Orangeman.'

The sixth shrine of Christ the King was dedicated on the 2^nd January 1928 by Canon James Mullen, parish priest of Saint Augustine's, Coatbridge, which he himself had donated. The statue of Saint Anthony, donated by a benefactor from Saint Anthony's, Govan was unveiled on 21^st October 1928.

Not to be outdone in generosity, the tertiaries of Saint Francis of Assisi next offered to defray the cost of a statue in honour of their own spiritual father. The statue was set up on a rocky embankment just below Saint Anthony.

The staute of Saint Anthony in 1932

On the left lies the Bethlehem Cave, partly underground with access to it covered-in by paved steps; on the right is the Portinuncula, or tiny Chapel of the Angels - both cave and chapel associated traditionally with Saint Francis.

 The Nativity scene in the underground cave 

The dedication of the Shrine of Saint Patrick was dedicated on 24^th August 1930. It was unveiled by Mr Joseph Devlin MP for Belfast and a friend of the Grotto since its inception. Monsignor Kelly, from Saint Patrick's parish, Dumbarton, where a very young Father Taylor served the first three years of his priestly ministry blessed the shrine.  Four years later the shrine was enriched by a precious Mass Rock, weighing over two and a half tons, the gift of a Protestant owner, from Rathfriland, Co. Down.

The blessing of the statue of Saint Patrick and the Mass Rock

During these years, several other lesser shrines were donated to the Grotto: the Great Archangels, Saint Clare, Saint John Vianney and Saint Philomena. The latter two statues were the gift of a mother and daughter, two factory workers from Glasgow. The cost of several reliquaries was also defrayed by the same family.

In anticipation of the canonisation of Saint Bernadette, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in December 1933, Canon Taylor inaugurated a new shrine in the Grotto, on the Feast of the Annunciation - a bas-relief in marble of Our Lady, Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine. Nearby was installed a marble tablet, inscribed with Our Lady's own hymn of praise, the 'Magnificat'. The bas-relief was the gift of an Irish Lad, a relation of two seminarian friends of Canon Taylor at Saint Sulpice; the tablet, a thanksgiving gift for twenty-five years of happy married life.

The dedication of the bas-relief

Corpus Christi pageants, with children dressed as pages and handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament, in medieval attire, had from the beginning proved an attraction to the onlookers.

A procession with handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament

The festivals of Our Lady - Assumption Sunday and Rosary Sunday were distinguished by a charming display provided by children from Catholic orphanages, each dressed in different colours representing the mysteries of the Rosary.

The children of the Good Shepherd Orphanage take part in a procession

As the years passed Canon Taylor's collection of precious relics increased, most of them with authentification: Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, Saint Thomas More and other English Martyrs, Saint Pius X, Saint John Bosco and numerous modern saints; relics too of Medieval saints acquired from Rome and from abbeys and monasteries in England, Belgium and elsewhere in Europe. Where authentification of relics of Medieval saints is not clearly defined, nevertheless, these relics are hallowed by the prayers of the faithful, in memory of the saints whom they represent, and consequently, they are reserved in the All Saints Reliquary Chapel.

The reliquary of the True Cross being carried in procession

Another Sunday procession with relics from the All Saints Reliquary Chapel

By 1938, the huge stone wall had been raised to contain the extension. The dip of the inner side was filled up, forming a parapet above ground level, at least about thirty-five feet wide. In due course this parapet was built the extended processional route, which eventually linked the two avenues - the one from the upper Grotto and the other from the lower Grotto. The new connecting route encircled the sunken garden, originally meant to the shrine of Saint Joseph.

Saint Joseph's shrine in the sunken garden area

After the war, seven-feet high bas-reliefs of Our Lady of Sorrows were mounted on the southern inner wall of the garden. Into the wall, partly underground on the other side, was built a domed replica of the Holy House of Nazareth, with its three caves and unusual statues of the Holy Family. The design of the Holy House was provided by the Bishop of Loreto; the Dupon family of Bruges designed and sculpted the statues of the Holy Family. Twelve years were to pass before the half-finished work on the sunken garden was finally complete. Almost immediately on the outbreak of war in September 1939, special trains and buses for hire, were cancelled. Many of the Grotto's volunteer workers were 'called up' to the armed services, or directed to work of national importance. Throughout the war years a few of the villages ladies took over the task of keeping the statuary clean and tidy; now and again the scholastics from Craighead Jesuit House volunteered their services for sundry tasks.

The numbers of pilgrims were to lessen as the war continued. Individuals and small groups came, so too did men and women of the Armed Forces of Canada and Australia. American soldiers on leave from Northern Ireland bases made the Grotto part of their itinerary. Goanese sailors, well known at Carfin for devotion to Saint Francis Xavier, came to their Grotto whenever their convoy was in port.

Shortly after the War, the statue of Saint Pius X was installed in the lower part of the Grotto. Flanked on one side by Saint John Bosco and on the other by Saint John the Bapitst de la Salle, patrons of teachers and youth respectively.

Six years after the first Fatima rally, a large marble statue in honour of Our Lady of Fatima was erected in the far corner of the Grotto, near the sunken garden. The shrine was dedicated by Archbishop Campbell in the first week of December 1954. Like most statues of the Grotto, that of the Madonna of Fatima was sculptured from an original design, which in this case was submitted for approval to Sister Lucia, the last surviving member of the three seers of Fatima.

In 1962 Saint Francis Xavier's Parish celebrated its centenary year as a parish, at a time when Monsignor Taylor had just returned from hospital after a spell of illness. The procession on the 30^th September 1962, was particularly busy in the centenary year; many came to commemorate the sixty-fifth anniversary of the death of Saint Therese; others came to catch a glimpse of Monsignor Taylor was celebrating his sixty-fifth anniversary as a priest and fortieth anniversary of the Grotto, as well as the centenary of the Grotto which he had directed for forty-seven years.

On the 8^th December Monsignor Taylor led the procession in honour of the Immaculate Conception. From a leading car, he and his assistant priests led the the fifteen decades of the Rosary. Three days later, on 11^th December 1962, Monsignor Taylor celebrated his last Mass. On 1^st December of the following year, Monsignor Taylor died, in his ninetieth year and sixty-seventh year of Priesthood.

Monsignor Taylor's funeral in Our Lady of Good Aid Cathedral, 1963

On 2^nd April 1965 Father George Mullen was appointed as Parish Priest. He noted that there were two important omissions from the Grotto: Saint Andrew and Saint John Ogilvie. Very soon a large statue of Saint Andrew was added, and in November 1981 a permanent life-size statue of Saint John Ogilvie. The wooden Stations of the Cross, erected during Monsignor Taylor's time, were badly decayed. To replace these, Father Mullen arranged for more permanent Stations to be erected; these were built of brick and the cost defrayed by present and former parishioners, and other friends of the Grotto.

Father George Mullen

In booklets on the Grotto Written by Monsignor Taylor in 1915, 1952 and 1958, he invariably ended with the Biblical text, 'If this be the work of men it will come to nought; but if it be of God it will endure.'

The Grotto has endured for ninety years. It is for present and future generations to decide whether the heritage, handed down from their forbears, of a strong love of Almighty God, of his Blessed Mother and the saints, shall endure in the future.