MARYLAND: THE NATIONAL SHRINE GROTTO OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES

MARYLAND GROTTO OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES

By Henry Libo-on

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The Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at Mount Saint Mary. 
From our hotel in Virginia, we drove for an hour, more or less, until we reach this national shrine.

One of the attractions that tourists visit at Maryland is the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at Mount St. Mary at 16330 Grotto Road, Emmitsburg, Maryland, with phone number 301-447-5318. 

The Entrance to the Shrine. 
(Photo was taken from inside the shrine campus.)

The shrine lies within the campus of Mount St. Mary's University.  It has a reception center and gift shop, a prayer room, a chapel, station of the cross, a spring water fountain, the last supper park, the marker of St. Elizabeth Seton's old house, and a St. Anthony's Cemetery which was founded in 1806. 

The Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and this Big Bird as it surveys Mount St. Mary. 

One of the first inhabitants of this place who became a saint was Mother Seton.  She was canonized as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on September 14, 1975.  

St. Elizabeth was a native-born American and the first to be canonized as a saint.  St. Elizabeth Seton was the founder of the first school for girls in America here in this place at Emmitsburg, Maryland.  She was also the founder of Sisters of Charity. (Wikipedia)

St. Elizabeth Seton per precationem intercessionis. 

Seton donis beátæ Elísabeth et gratiae

Uxor et mater, ut, quam pie veneramur et prolis educatore;

Ita ut expendas, ut in eius servitio ad populum tuum.

Et per orationis exemplum eius

Sit discimus exprimere amor noster pro vobis

In amore debemus diligere homines et mulieres.

Per eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum:

Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti,

Unum Deum, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Grotto Sanctuary.

Prayer Room. "Ego dilecto meo et orabat."

I took this photo of my grandson as he climbs the stairs to the Reception Area and Souvenir Shop.

My other grandchildren were busy playing with their friends who are the children of my daughter Tsa and Nick's friends - Bern and Jaime. 

If you are visiting the Washington, D. C. area, you can make a side trip to Virginia's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at 14390 Air and Space Museum Pkwy, Chantilly, Virginia 22556.  The Hazy Center is also known among tourists as "The Hangar".  It is one of the centers under the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museums.  

Our visit to the shrine took us around one hour.  We were composed of two families and two cars with adults and children.  The kids had a great time playing and running around the well-manicured lawns. 

After an hour, we left the shrine to continue our next destination, the Biggs Museum of American Art, and the Legislative Mall and Park of Delaware.   The Biggs Museum of American Art is located at 406 Federal St., DE 19901. 
Bern and Jaime went a separate way to visit their relatives living in Maryland. 

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Copyright photos by Henry Libo-on of Touristang Pobre.  
Updated on March 15, 2020. 

Reviewed on April 16, 2023.