The grotto of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in Lachute, Quebec

The Beginnings:

It all began in 1929, when Bernadette Carrière, then wife of William-Henry Ayers, went on a pilgrimage with her three daughters to Lourdes, France. Upon their return, they conceived the idea of erecting a grotto in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes on their property. It was not until 1935 that Bernadette Carrière and her daughter Eva-Pearl installed the statues of Our Lady and St. Bernadette. Prayer groups led by the parish priest of Brownsburg, Vitalis Bouchard, began to go there. In response to this popular movement, and thanks to the prayers of Eva-Pearl, Mr. Ayers undertook the first major changes to beautify the Grotto. In October 1936, he entrusted the White Landscape Company of Montreal with the direction of the considerable and very costly work. Mrs. Ayers ordered a fence and a wrought iron gate. She had a gazebo built, a portable altar and provided all the furniture necessary for religious celebrations.

A Marian shrine takes shape:

Eva, who died in 1936, did not see the work completed. Mrs. Ayers, then a widow, took the necessary steps to ask Archbishop Alexandre Vachon of Ottawa to make the site a Marian shrine and to entrust the animation to the Franciscans.

The project was accepted in January 1949. Father Jean-Capistran Cayer, in charge of the Franciscan community, celebrated the first Eucharist on May 17, 1949 in the presence of the donor family. On August 14, 1949, Bishop Vachon blessed the newly built chapel. The residence of the guardians of the place would not be available until the following year. As true sons of Francis of Assisi, the Franciscans stayed for a year in the three small cabins that had been used by the construction workers.

The influx of pilgrims:

From then on, the pilgrimages were to experience an unexpected boom. Already, on June 13, 1949, 2000 English-speaking tertiaries came from Montreal by train and by bus. Fifty-one pilgrimages were held during the first summer. A few years later, by the end of 1953, 625 groups had visited The Grotto. Until then, the crowds had been content to gather in the open air in all weathers around the kiosk that served as a shelter! The idea of building a larger chapel came to mind. Bishop Émilien Frenette of the diocese of Saint-Jérôme presided over the blessing of the large chapel on August 13, 1961 before 700 faithful.

Sources:

-www.zonepastoralelachute.org/Grotte/Historique.html

-LEBLANC, Gilles, Pèlerinages et lieux de prières au Québec