Lourdes-Madonna und heilige Bernadette Heiligenkreuz

The Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Heiligenkreuz is a Lourdes grotto in Heiligenkreuz, a municipality in the Vienna Woods in the district of Baden near

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, which was created in 2017 by the

Heiligenkreuz Abbey Heiligenkreuz Abbey (german: Stift Heiligenkreuz; en, Abbey of the Holy Cross) is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden in Lower Austria. It is the olde ...

as a religious

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

in honor of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

. Like all similar grottoes of Our Lady of Lourdes around the world, it is reminiscent of the world-famous grotto of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in the French pilgrimage town of Lourdes. NÖN.at – Abt Maximilian Heim OCist
Neue Lourdes-Grotte
(in German). 1 August 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2022.Marterl.at – Lourdes-Grotte
(in German). Retrieved 2 May 2022.

Location and history

Heiligenkreuz lies on the Via Sacra pilgrimage route from Vienna to Austria's national Marian shrine Mariazell, and has always been a stopping point of many

pilgrim A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on Pilgrimage, a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the a ...

s. The

Cistercians The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

of Heiligenkreuz Abbey say about the

veneration of Mary Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of God, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orient ...

, the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are " ...

: "Where Mary is worshiped and prayed to,

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

takes root and becomes alive and strong. Where Mary is loved, the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

is loved". That is why a special place for pilgrims – the Cave of Our Lady of Lourdes – was created in the immediate vicinity of Heiligenkreuz Abbey. This

Marian grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...

was built in the

summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

of 2017 in a natural rock next to the Sattelbach

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

, near the medieval granary, and was solemnly consecrated on the eve of the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

(14 August) by the Apostolic Nuncio in Austria,

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Peter Stephan Zurbriggen. One

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

of the Madonna of Lourdes from the beginning of the 20th century, a gift to the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, has been renovated and placed in a natural hollow of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, with an

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

cut from the same stone and placed in front of it. Since August 2020, a small statue of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, donated by an unidentified benefactor, has also been part of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Heiligenkreuz: the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

Lilienfeld Abbey Lilienfeld Abbey (german: Stift Lilienfeld) is a Cistercian monastery in Lilienfeld in Lower Austria, south of Sankt Pölten. History It was founded in 1202 by Leopold VI, Duke of Austria and Styria, as a daughter house of Heiligenkreuz Abbey. ...

Pius Martin Maurer blessed it during the great candlelight procession on 14 August 2020.Stift Heiligenkreuz: Die Heiligenkreuzer-Lourdesgrotte hat jetzt eine heilige Bernadette
(in German). 26 August 2020. Retrieved 2. May 2022.

References

External links

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

– Stift Heiligenkreuz
Ein Hauch von Lourdes , Die Lourdesgrotte in Heiligenkreuz
(in German) * YouTube – Stift Heiligenkreuz
Segnung Lourdes-Grotte Stift Heiligenkreuz
(in German)
MeinBezirk.at / Robert Rieger: Besuch der Lourdes – Grotte Heiligenkreuz 12.12.2020
(in German)
Stiftspfarre Heiligenkreuz: Neue Lourdes-Grotte in Heiligenkreuz
(in German) {{coord, 48.05486, 16.12958, region:AT-3_type:landmark, display=title Religious buildings and structures in Austria Religious buildings and structures completed in 2017