Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1894 — ST. ANNES SHRINE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ST. ANNES SHRINE.

SOME MIRACULOUS CURES EFFECTED RECENTLY. '■nd Are the Sight- Occasionally Witnessed •nd Many Disappointed Ones Are Enconntered—The Bones of the Good Sain* —History of the Belies, Crntehes Thrown Aw -v. The pilgrimages to tbe shrine of St. Anne, twenty-two miles below Quebec, are in full blast and thousands are to be found there every day. A few days ago a large delegation from Morrisburg, Ont., visited the place. Among those were Kate Sweeney, who is 22 years old, and who for a long time has suffered severely from spinal disease and paralysis of the legs. She waa carried from the train into the church, and no sooner had she communicated and venerated the relic of St Anne than she felt her natural strength return to her, and she rose and left the church without assistance. Last week Mrs. Diogene Guirmont. of Cap St Igaace, who had been bedridden since February and incapable of walking, was assisted to the 'oot of the statue of St Anne. There she remained for a time praying and weeping,after which, raising herself painfully upon her crutches, she approached the altar railing and reverently kissed the lelio which the priest presented to her< As she did 'so she felt the crutches slipping away frcm her, and, making no effort to retain them, she stood erect for a moment. Then, with her husband and a friend at her s de, the walked firmly to the foot of the statue and there kneeling returned thanks with happy t. ars. This done she

walked to the boat. She is now said to be thoroughly cured and able to attend to her household affairs. This miracle is vouched for by the priest of Cap St Ignace, who accompanied the pilgrims. The woman’s crutches, left behind, have gone to swell the large collection of discarded canes, crutches and other aids which form two large pyramids, twenty feet in height, just within the entrance to the church. Mrs. Joseph Paquette, of Indian Lorette, recently had a smothering sensation in the region of her heart, which physicians could not cure. She declared that she had made a vow to St. Anne to tho effect that if relief were given to her she would publish the fact to the greater glory of the saint. She said she had obtained the longed-for cure in the sanctuary of the saint, and would proclaim it to the world. An 11-year-old girl from Coatieooke had been dumb for eight years, when, after invoking the aid of St. Anne and communicating, the string of her tongue was loosed, and she cried out, “Good St. Anne, I thank you." Some Pltifnl Scenes. Nine-tenths of those who pray for relief fail t.» tecure it. This is the most distressing feature at St. Anne. Very pitiful, indeed, are some of the scones thus witnessed. Sickly children, whose cries fill the air, are seen on every side. Consumptives in the la->t stages of the di ase stagger or are led by friends to the altar railing. Frequently, at the foot of St. Anne’s statue, are seen supplicating sufferers who, unsatisfied with their own oral petitions ami unable to remain at the altar until their prayers have besn favorab'y answered, supplement them with written pleas inclosed in healed envelopes and bearing the simple address, “A la bonne St. Anne.” Numbers of these letters are always t > be seen upon the pedes'al of the statue. Tne church contains two or three relics of St. Anne's bodv, the largest being a portion of the west bone three inches in length. Another is a portiou of a lower thumb joint. Thousands of peo r le Venerate these relics, after confessing, communicating and hearing tho reading of the gospel of St. Anne. The main potion of the bones of the saint are claimed by the cathedral at Apt, France, where the e reli s were obtained. The body is said to have been taken from Jerusalem by St. James and others to Marseilles, the ship containing them being miraculously preserved from wreck. Fr m Marseilles the body was taken to Apt, where for centuries its location was unknown, until its remarkable rediscovery.

ABANDONED BY CRIPPLES