Commemoration of Ss. Chrysanthus and Daria

Martyrs

St. Chrysanthus was converted by his wife, St. Daria. They came from the East to Rome. After many torments under the prefect Celerinus, they were buried alive in a sandpit in 284.

We awoke Saturday morning relatively refreshed and ready to follow the Jubilee path marked out by the Pope in hopes of gaining a plenary indulgence. We began the morning with another visit to the grotto of the apparitions and then to the basilicas which are built directly over the grotto. The Basilica of the Rosary is the lower shrine with the mosaics covering the facade; the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is the higher shrine with the towers.

After Divine Liturgy with most of our group at the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lourdes we started out on the Jubilee path. First, we went to the parish church in Lourdes where St. Bernadette was baptized to pray before the baptismal font. Then, we visited the Cachot, which is a former prison into which St. Bernadette's family moved for want of money in 1857 when her father lost his job. It was from there that St. Bernadette set out on February 11, 1858 to gather firewood. Next, we came to the grotto itself wherein our Lady appeared that day to St. Bernadette. It was quite crowded then because of a procession of French "cowboys" on horseback that were coming to say the Rosary in front of the grotto. From a distance, though, we were able to say our prayers, and then we headed off to our final destination: the hospice chapel where St. Bernadette made her first Holy Communion.

Later that evening we returned to the grotto (now much less crowded), and remained until the sun began to set over the basilicas at which point we set off to find some dinner.