Page
THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1954.
William Hickey = At Lourdes there
are
Rules For Every Miracle
I
Lourdes.
to
CAME down Lourdes one fine day. 1 caught the 8.15 a.m. plane to Brussole, changed thero, and at 2.30 i was jerking along in a French bus admiring the pale cream cattle that pulled the ploughs and the carts in the shadow of the Pyrences.
it
Л delightful ensation.
was
One of the picosures of lvina in 1954 and there are some--is suddenly possibility of the
ebanging your environment In
a few hours, Magle carpets are
available to all of us now.
with people. And up the avengo comes a great procession.
Over the loudspeaker comes a hymn sung in the dead tongue of Latin,
The whole thing strikes you. like a blow between the eyes.
I just watched the Age of Faith come to life,
"
they say started to now when Mademoiselle Lauret, No make- Bernadette had seen Our Lady up.. Dressed in black. on the winth eversion.
"It was quite in order to go in and say -"Bonjour, modem- obselle, have you any miracies
On each side of the bath is an attendant wearing on opron, to
*They
She will reply to any caller Wend transferringđề paralysed man-quite young and Meu, I have only official krow anything fine looking to a stretcher. His now. I don't
about the
go on legs werd twitching.
stories that outside."
1
The stretcher slipped and, the
From othaldo came the chart- of yet another procession.
I mean it did not matter if ultèndants jaked in their Gallis in virou see, I am only in |
one believed or not. This was fashion.
an example of, what life must have been like in the age of falth.
Then he was tipped into the bath while the attendants pray
ed.
They splashed the water The afternoon ritual which is changed just twice
day--over his obest,
There was a sort of 'major domo in 18th century, costumo
They prayed and prayed.
He was such a fine-looking
My magic carpets were very debunk it, I did not want to be carrying a wand, who was lead man, that paralysed chap.
comfortabl..
lleye it.
la
Breakfast OT the way Brussels, lunch us we majesti- cally swept uver the length of France.
I
Town of miracles
Between Brussels and Lourdes lay buck 1 lucky. WIN
and
like 117 fly scat one of the Greek gods sailing along on a pneumatic cloud on of dirty the way to do a bli work at the siege of Troy.
The cloud world is fascinal
но 13716Ch in Ing. They vary colour grey, violes and deter
And ttle res gent whiteness. bellous wisps suddenly appear scurrying along tur quicker than the others.
was
We came down on to the grass runway at Ossun airfield
There were half a dozen aero- planes there mostly choqter aircraft.
#
"You'll love Lourdes,” said the dear old Irish lady as we walted for our luggage. "The candlelight processions. the singing. the bustle, and the hope. It la all so wonderful,...
"
It is wonderful-it is wonder- ful because here life is much as
must have been in Canterbury when that city was a centre of pilgrimage. This is Canterbury in 20th-century terms; with, no doubt, nil the characters that Chaucer described in his Center- bury Tales.
Nadir of taste
I walked down the road to-
But when I was not looking at the clouds and the field, I tried to explain to myself why I was coming to Lourdes.
wards what my guidebook calls almost "The Holy City." A fantastic diffult and
street. Both sides are filled with I came to the con- impossible. clusion
explain shops selling every imaginable 'culit
not satisfactorily why i was coming religious article that could be to Lourdes. But I Just knew associated with Lourdes, that I was determined to go there just as I am determined one day tu see the Taj Mahal und Ball,
a
Of course, I had good reasons ....Lourdes is town where have taken they say miracles place.
of
ing the procession.
And then came lay sisters in pale blue skirts and white head- dresses. They carried pale blue banners decorated with pale blue ribbons,
There were hundreds of priests, mostly in black. Those who were officiating, in scarlet and lace.
He came out and went over to the river that flows near by.
The valid chairs were still coming up in a long line behint me carrying their burdens of sick-young and old," men and women.
The chanting
There were men in ordinary clothes, some carrying an The chanting went on with elaborate palanquin over the inevitability of water falling priest holding a sacred object. on a stone.
There wero nuns in white. Nuns in black. Nuns in hooda and
with nuns
great white
starched hats,
This ritual of the afternoon procession goce on month after month, year after year.
L wonder what Bernadelle would have made of it all.
chargo
of official disalers. And It takes two or three years to confirm a miracle"
I was sitting at a litle desk with a neat card index in front of me: A little beyond stood a
typewriter.
We have rules”
The atmosphere was beginning to affect me. I felt I was taking part in one of those French flms where heaven is reduced to the bureaucracy of a French Ministry..
very
"You see, Maleu," said Made- moiselle Leuret in a calm, effi- cient voice: "We have exact rules about miracles here. Perhaps this pamphlet will help
you.
And as I read it I realised the whole matter has been reduced to a formula. First it is a dossier I didn't know what to think. prepared by the patient's doctor. Then before the patient leaves ho should be And then I knew I must leave for Lourdes Lourdes. I walked away quickly examined by a diocesan medical through the park, past the rows committee.
of the :: Next
comes the supervision of of shops seiling statues
and Innumerable the doctor accompanying the Mon mementoes of Lourdes. I went patient. back to my hotel and found out train for the time of the next Biarritz,
The Impressions here have been so overwhelming short a time I felt I had to get lo away.
I walked down the hillside puth to the pinces that are sacred here. I was armed with a pass given me by "Monseigneur Recteur," tall, ebie-looking man who talked to me affably in a study that reminded me of
theadmaster's sanctum.
If a a cure contrary to nature seems to have taken place, the scientiae bureau here examines the patient. If the doctors think there are grounds for believing a miracle has taken place there
re
further estur
examinations by various committees over the next
Tre
There was the torchlight pro- year ression under the Thoon and staty.
Finally the complete dossier 1s eent to the Bishop of Lourdes, who, if he thinks it, sends all the evidence to an international committee of 25 members.
Dossier of a cure
I had always thought that
They illuminated the church Two young policemen showed most of the things in Rome and Catholic religious shops are
me the way down the hill. that has been built just by the execrable taste-1 am sure I joined the procession
to the grotto with thousands of electric
lights. should still think so if I were a grotto where the girl Bernadette,
Here Roman Catholic.
the now
saint of the Roman And in the processional way inste reaches is nadir-horrid Catholic Church,
3 W "Our in fran
th pilgrims march bric-a-brac stones engraved with Lady."
slowly round...
After that step the bishop of the patient's diocese sets up a "I prayed for you at Lourdes," thousands of revoltingly highly
Each carries a condie protected.emonical copnamission. hillside. Now It is filed with by a pison of parchment, able brass knick-knacks.
so many candles that they give light even in the sunshine.
The flowing spring coloured postcards-Innumer
Not 2,000 years ago or more. But in my lifetime and in that
my grandfather
Was
And all this jumbled up with statues of Our Lady, coloured
of my father and grandfather candles, sweetmeats and Basque
contemporary of berets. Bernadelte Soubirous, the girl who saw Our Lady in 1850.
In fact nearly
4
A wretchedly poor little girl- her
sunk from father had müller 10
labourer. Q
U
But, a voice within me said
What does it matter!
I crossed over the River Gave. An 11 must have been near where over on that when she
Iterate little girl, too, who was Bernadette passed
14 when she went to gather cold winter morning dead wood for the cottage fire first saw the vision. und saw "The Lady."
And
then tumed a corner the and came to "The Holy City." nearby I was one of the moments of my life-t fully justified the visit to Lourdes.
And 00011 after thot
to flow spring began with miraculous powers of heal ing-so millions belleve,
is now
o Salut of
And this poor little girl-she
Imagine a great English park died as a nun at the age of 35 with an avenue of large trees,
the Roman
And at the end is a church of grey stone rising up against background of mountains.
Catholic Church.
I turned the facts over in my mind as cypressts began to ap- pear, in, the field hedges. I still
There are ceremonial
stone
IL is just a
hollow In the
In front of me they were kissing the stone.
And looking
Ave Maria
Only then, with its approval, can a miracle be declared to have occurred.
That'A
BORDER
'Your wee bairns' were collecting thèm as souvenirs to take home and you didn't
Dipite
'know' it—a likely story!" :
this hold-um, the Qtles remity in "areastra un kawards home after the tour of the Highlande.
London Express Bervica
TRAVEL GUIDE
TO SIBERIA
By
RAVEL literaturo
T
DAVID LAIDLAW
is from the town of Minusinsk at all a bad place in which not a. / thing one on the Mongolian frontier to to spend a few years. To often hears about Dudinka; on the river's prisoners in the Norilsk connection with the Arctic estuary. Dudinka la camps, herded in their that is U.S.S.R.-probably because the port for Norilsk, and hundreds in the nickel And that is a
a scientific analysis Soviet citizens have to many recent repatriates mines, Its two windows,
the cald
Mademoiselle Leuret-moving with perfect ease about her at the stoos I realised that the
As you look at the scene from bureau of miracles-plled me touch of hands and the trach the entrance there are thousands with more pamphlets, the in of lips has given a smooth of points of light waving under the last miracle,"
last official miracle a darker hour to surface and
the trees. tive rock. And that in under a
And all thire points of light of the waters... I ended up century.
possess a permit be- from the Norilsk labour thatched roof and blessed Cove voice chanting "Ave with half a dozen pamphlets.
she "Now,"
"I will fore they can even move camps have told how they privacy would seem almost added, show you the complete dossier of from one town, to the were transported to this like paradise.
In moro miraculous cure."
next, Foreigners can visit grim destination by the gay
ways than one. She pulled out one of a line Russia only if the Soviet little paddle boats of the the early exiles had quite a of neat black loose-leaf folders.
Hands on the rock
Just as I was going into the grotto a sick woman way brought up between her son and an at- tondant.
She seemed to be paralysed. Room was found for her in front of meL,
And when she came to the
rock she stretched out her hard and clung to it. Her lips moved in a prayer.
Marin."
ah-Day
mariah An vay ah-udy ch tay mari-i-ah."
Hour after hour it goes on-- until your lips begin the words of their own accord,
4
It contained 13 photographed authorities grant them a steamship company. But pleasant time of it. Most of to form coples of the relevant documents visa or if they have been nowhere of course in the 72 us think of Siberia as, a no-
ZIN. a tubercular
The officially invited, and they pages of the brochure is man's-land of frozen misery ranged from the first doctor's
mention' of and so it is in the neigh- repors to a cardinal's approval are surrounded by so many there
After half an hour the chant ing sinks into your consciousness
pened.
.any
that in fact a miracle had hop-human guides that they Norilsk or of such involun- bourhood of Norilsk---but
unless the steamship com could not possibly need a tary passengers. -becomes part of you
Appended were the charts of guide book. It is interesting, Instead, the book dwells pany has misrepresented The sound of the chanting is persistent that you can hear the girl's temperature for many therefore, to learn that in at great length on the "holy things, the countryside is it in the air a mile away like months.
1962 a river steamer com- shrines of Communism" vory different in the place. **Thank you very much, a soft drone.
mademoiselle," I said, shaking pany in Siberia-of all which are dotted along the to which Lenin and Stalin It was an unbearable moment.
I realised that my hotel was hands, m very grateful for all places--felt the urge to Yenisei. These, shrines are were sent:
burst into print about its the spots to which the re The baths are near by. 'Round mainly inhabited by Irish. The your help."
the Prime Minister of Eire, himself,
local beauty spots. were ined
Others of Mr Costello, Long invalid chairs.
nuns bere for the sick eat on wooden benches breakfast and lunch.
After a meal waiting for their turn. Beyond
a nun who has them were the faithful, intoning been eating in the room comes at the guance of around and asks for charity for provera priest.
the poor,
For an hour or two I attended slon forming up. An attendant looked at my to the business alde of the pasa arid took me into the baths, miracles
did not know why I was coming staircases leading up to the
the entrances I did not want to church. to Lourdes.
And they are crowded
ONLY $5.
You pass into a hollow in the
canvas
The city of prayer
I walked out of the cool stone room into the runshine.
There was yet another proces-
Ironic Reading
Aching Hours
volutionaries were banished under Czarist rule. The amount of attention devoted to them and the fervour of with photographs of what one The book is heavily illustrated
A copy of the resulting the descriptions leave one might call reál !!"""holiday!! brochure, "A Guidebook and in little doubt as to the pro- scenery-rolling hilis, pute Handbook to the Yenisei".
pagandist nature of the woods, and the broad, winding A new line of invalid chairs was brought out of Russia guide book, and explains river. It all looks very peace- wa pushed along to the early in 1954 by a released why this remote region of ful, and actualy Russian gims,
one CAN
That sounds almost inreligious. baths.
But in Lourdes it is not. Here the prayers were rising up to prisoner from the forced the Soviet Union should the exiles put its Donocfulnes rocks, pull up a rough call miracles are filed and docketed the heavens. They rise up day labour centre of Norilsk, have been chosen as subject to good use and made the most Uko National Health Service and night here. It is a city of which is situated at the matter for a tourist publica of their opportunities for un- room-ay 12ft. by 281.
cards,
prayer.
In the first twif the patients The office is under one of the From dawn until far into the mouth of the Yenlsel river, Hot
hear · the volces This booklet makes rather are undressed. Then the floor ramps that lend to the upper night you can lowers and in the centre is the church. A spare, coldly efficient consolessly singing... "Ah-pay, ironic reading. It describes a stone bath with the water which room run by a young woman, ah-vay, ah-vay Mari-i-ah.
voyage down the Yenisel
A
THE GUARDS PERK UP PROVIDENCE
NEW YORK.
OBERT HULLINS,
a
From NEWELL ROGERS
feel like brothers."
Stalin's Exile
disturbed plotting.
they.
At Norilsk, on the other hand, inot only are the prisoners, sub- jected to long, oching hours of manual "labour, Insufficient food Witness the following and sub-zero temperaturës, but passage on the town of they are seldom allowed to talk Kurelke, where Stalin spent, to one another. And in any case, freely lest two
and a half years fow dars to do so of his exile:Tourists Informert, about 80,000 men should be speaking to an flock here as they do AU
At present, relations that makes two peoples to Shushonskoye (Lenin's and women are imprised in
|place of exile); there is a the
camps (mostly on political
'grounds) {acedrillato cottage museum, ... 68 at
"estimates For the little people" of Shushenskoye, visited every riater In view of their the American city of Pro- Here they were in the Isi 180 years since the
the year by thousands of people. Intus de slave labourers and the vidence (pop. 248,000), middle of the disaster area Recicoats took the revolutionary America who admired heard music in the street hit by hurricanes Carol and strongholds of Boston and Pro- Dont pageantry, and colour of Hers from the first half of nature of their vidmce, which is 10 miles the Coronation and other tradi- March 1914 till December, scarcely help while he was fixing a win- Edha. Shopkeeper Hollins away, on Rhode Island, tional events are now seeing 1916, lived Joseph Vis dow.
was flooded out twice in 10 Ass 25 pr
something of the real thing Barionovich Stalin, exiled in Now they
taken "When I went out to look days,
gala. But with what a differ-
In the street stop the pit On a high
1918 by the Czarist butchers. I could hardly-belleve my
"As they marched past in ence!
and deluga, thern with eyes,
all their glory suddenly felb better he
Rhardware merchant in
he
"Coming
through
rain I saw, scarlet and tall bearskina
thum
rolled"
Main