On Monday the 20 September 1920, the volunteers started work and continued through to the autumn of 1922, when the Carrara marble statues of the Madonna and St. Bernadette arrived from Rome. On the second Sunday in October 1922, the Lourdes Shrine was officially opened. Over 2000 pilgrims attended the dedicated ceremony.

 

April 29 1923 saw the beatification in Rome of the Venerable Carmelite Therese of Lisieux. Father Taylor, who was one of the witnesses for her canonisation and was also the privileged translator of her autobiography, decided that a small statue of Blessed Therese should be placed in the Grotto. One month later the invasion of Carfin began. It was calculated that within 12 weeks over a quarter of a million pilgrims and sightseers visited the Grotto. ”To stand in the main street of Carfin” remarked the Edinburgh Evening Standard dated Monday 2nd July 1923, “and to watch the people streaming into the Grotto, which has come to be known as the Scottish Lourdes, is an experience not readily to be forgotten”. On Sunday 29th July 1923, a crowd estimated at 40,000 attended. Enlargement of the shrine was necessary to accommodate the crowds and so ecclesiastical permission was sought to purchase a further five acres. Archbishop Mackintosh gave his approval on Sunday 6 th January, 1924. By Monday 21st January 1924 the land had been purchased and over 2000 volunteers started work on that day.

 

While work was being carried out in the Grotto, it was decided to hold the Corpus Christi procession through the streets of the village on Sunday 22nd June 1924, as had been in previous years. Unexpectedly the police informed the clergy that it would be illegal and in proof produced a document containing the clause of the Penal Act of 1829, invoked in 1908 against the Westminster Eucharistic Congress procession. It was never known who had compelled the police to resurrect the Act. The storm of protest, which followed, prompted Members of Parliament to raise the matter in the House resulting in the Catholic Relief Act which was introduced by the non catholic member for Watford, Denis Herbert. The bill received royal assent on 15th December 1926.

 

In July 1924, Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, paid a visit to the Grotto and according to press reports, 50.000 pilgrims attended.

 

On Sunday May 17 1925, Blessed Therese of Lisieux was canonised by Pope PiusXI. The following week her statue, made from Carrara marble and obtained through her sister, Mother Agnes at the Carmel in Lisieux arrived at Carfin. On May 31, with a major part of the extension completed, the shrine to St Therese was opened.