Oostakker, formerly spelled Oostacker, is one of the smaller former municipalities which were merged into Ghent (from which it is only two miles), the capital of the Belgian province of East Flanders. Ghent (ˈɡɛnt Gent ʝɛnt in Dutch, Gand in French, and formerly Gaunt in English) is a City and a East Flanders ( Oost-Vlaanderen in Dutch, Flandre orientale in French) is a province of Flanders, one of the three The hamlet is mainly known for its Roman Catholic shrine of the Virgin Mary. A shrine, from the Latin scrinium (‘box’ also used as a desk like the French bureau) was originally a container usually made of precious materials used
Shrine of Oostakker
The miraculous shrine of the Blessed Virgin is a place of pilgrimage from Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern France. In Religion and Spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or Search of great Moral significance The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. It takes its name from Ghent. Its origin as a centre of pilgrimage is comparatively recent, dating from 1873.
In 1871 the Marquise de Calonne de Courtebourne had built in the park of her estate at Oostacker an aquarium in the form of an artificial cave or grotto. One day, while on a visit to the park, the parish priest, reverend Moreels, suggested that a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes be placed among the rocks. The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes began on 11 February 1858 when Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old peasant girl from Lourdes admitted when questioned For two years the grotto remained simply an aquarium, but gradually the members of the family formed the habit of stopping there to recite a Hail Mary. The Hail Mary or Ave Maria ( Latin) is a traditional Christian Prayer asking for the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Soon it was decided to bless the statue publicly. The ceremony took place on 23 June, 1873, and was attended by nearly all the inhabitants of the village. The pious Flemish peasants asked permission of the owner to come frequently to the park to give vent to their devotion. Accordingly, access was allowed them on Sunday afternoon. At that time the world was ringing with the fame of Lourdes, and the shrine at Oostakker soon became popular; marvelous graces and wonderful cures were reported.
Before long Sunday afternoon no longer sufficed to receive the throngs of pilgrims, and the park was thrown open to the public by the generous owner. Then a large Gothic church was built, the corner-stone being laid on 22 May, 1875, by Mgr. Bracq. A priest's house followed, and the marchioness in memory of her son, a deceased Jesuit, confided shrine, church, and house to the Society of Jesus. The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order The fathers took possession on 8 April, 1877 and on 11 September of the same year the Apostolic nuncio, Seraphino Vannutelli, consecrated the church. Nuncio is an ecclesiastical Diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin word Nuntius, meaning "envoy That part of the estate, in which the grotto was, was now definitively given over to the service of Our Lady, a long avenue being built from the road to the shrine and a Way of the Cross erected. In the early 20th century 60,000 pilgrims came annually, in about 450 organized pilgrimages.
Source
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia [1]
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