Courtney McGrailCanon Colm Kilcoyne traces the development of popular piety and devotion at Knock
The apparition at Knock took place on a wet Thursday evening on August 21, 1879. In all, there were 15 official witnesses.
The archbishop of Tuam, the ‘Lion of the West’, was Archbishop John McHale. He set up a commission of enquiry straight after the reports of an apparition. All 15 witnesses gave evidence. The commission gave its verdict: “The evidence of the witnesses was upright and trustworthy.”
Another commission sta-rted 57 years later, in 1936. Only three of the witnesses were alive. One of them, Mary Byrne, was 86 and dying. She gave her testimony on oath and ended with the words: “I am clear about everything I have said and I make this statement knowing I am going before my God”. She died six weeks later.”
After three years investigating this commission also gave its verdict. “The evidence of the witnesses is upright and trustworthy.” Knock had Church blessing.
Meanwhile, in the 57 years since the apparition in 1879 and its final official approval in 1936, popular devotions at Knock had gone ahead on their own. Devotions that needed no permission became semi-official, especially ones about Mary.
Evictions
This was the time of landlords, bailiffs, evictions and poverty. People developed intimate prayers that spoke of Mary as a mother close to her children. Children who had very basic needs. Sick stock, sick children, poor crops, poverty.
In this popular piety, Mary was a mother, softer than the Son the Church projected. A Mary small people could relate to; a mother who rescued the wedding couple at Cana from embarrassment; a woman you could talk to.
So when the Church finally judged the evidence of the witnesses to be upright and trustworthy, Knock had already a well-developed devotion to Mary.
Popular devotion is people driven. This has always made the official Church nervous, and often with good reason. Devotions can easily slip into superstition or be manipulated by people with less than honest motives.
Of course, it makes sense to keep an eye on popular piety. But it makes more sense to recognise that God doesn’t only speak only through defined doctrine and Church officials. Jesus used all kinds of props to tell his story. Fifty seven parables, all about familiar things and situations. He also used some unlikely people to work through and still does.
We can take or leave devotions. We are not necessarily better or worse Catholics because of our attitude to them. We can ignore them as many do. Or we can make them an important part of our spirituality. As many also do. Especially people who come to Knock.
As time went by the elements of the Knock apparition were studied more carefully. Mary is central, but John the Evangelist is also an important part of the tableau. He is depicted holding a book of scripture. This was at a time (the 1880’s) when the Bible was divisive in the west. Memories of Bible Schools and soup kitchens were still fresh.
Edward Nangle, the fou-nder of the Achill Mission and scourge of the Catholic Church in the west was still alive the time of the apparition. His enthusiasm for the Bible had only confirmed most Catholics that the Bible was a kind of Protestant thing and best left alone.
And yet here is St John the Evangelist looking us in the eye and holding up the open book of scripture. St John’s pose was telling us to grow up, stop being prisoners of foolish disputes and recognise scripture for what it is. Not a book for churches to squabble over but the Word of God and an essential source of spirituality for all Christians.
This was in 1879, long before Vatican II (1962-1965), which asked that “richer fare be provided for the faithful from the Table of God’s Word”.
I find it significant that this image of John holding the open Bible was part of the evidence of the witnesses. If they were true to the prejudices of their day they wouldn’t have dreamt of including evidence that suggested Nagle might be right about the Bible after all.
What started that wet Thursday in 1879 with just 15 witnesses is now a pilgrimage site that attracts over 1.5 million pilgrims every year. Over time facilities have been added. More ground to give space to pilgrims. Landscaping and water features that are a pleasure just to stroll through. Never mind the tranquillity they offer the pilgrim looking for peace of mind and soul.
Knock Shrine has kept adding services that respond to the needs of pilgrims. The aim is to cater for as many spiritual needs as people present.
After several attempts at giving it the dignity it deserves it now has an atmosphere that fits its status as the most important part of Knock Shrine. The Apparition Chapel is a place of stillness. No sound. Not even of prayer. You sit quietly. You have the kind of thoughts millions and millions must have had before you. Family. Health. Relationships. Thanksgiving. Petitions.
Notice the statues of the apparition figures. They are as true as they can be to the descriptions given by the witnesses.
Many of us were reared to see the Sacrament of Penance as an exercise in self-accusation in a confession box followed by Absolution. Now the Chapel of Reconciliation at Knock is designed to achieve what its name implies. Reconciliation with myself, my past, the people I’ve hurt. God. Following the model of the Prodigal Son, the emphasis now is on the recovery of dignity that comes from reconciliation with a loving Father.
Reconciliation
During the pilgrimage season 5,000 pilgrims a week make that journey home in the Chapel of Reconciliation in Knock.
The Carmelite community came to Knock in 1981. They weren’t the first Carmelites in the area. A few miles from Knock there had been a Carmelite monastery since 1288 that was destroyed in the Penal times (the 1600s).
The Carmelites get asked: What do you do all day? Well, they have Mass, the Divine Office, two hours of silent personal prayer, spiritual reading. And something hard to measure: openness to pilgrims who come to Tranquilla to look for prayers, advice and a listening ear.
It is run by professionals. In their own words: “The recession has created problems for people. Loss of jobs. Loss of income. Loss of independence and identity. Our counselling service cannot create jobs but it can help people come back from the brink.”
Since Knock Shrine has established itself as a centre of pilgrimage, the Family Life and Prayer Centre has been part of it.
For some people family experiences can be difficult. The death of someone close to us can be very difficult. We can all find ourselves in a situations with emotions new to us. The Family Life Centre helps us work through these challenges.
Why a facility like this in a place like Knock? Because if religion means anything it is about people and people by and large live out their lives in family networks.
A place to experience a way of praying that may be new to many people. It doesn’t set out to replace other forms. It simply offers an experience that may open up new ways of praying.
It starts with quiet time. Settle down time. A piece of Scripture is read. Then time to reflect on two points: What did that Scripture mean to the people who first heard it? And what might it mean to me right now in my life? This simple format can give me both insights and fresh motivation.
People may or may not wish to share their thought after the reading. What matters is that the time spent over the piece of scripture throws light on some part of their life. The sessions last 30 minutes. The atmosphere is reflective. There is no pressure.
Facilities
These are just a few of the many facilities at Knock, all of them a recognition the pilgrim is like anyone else. Complex. Often struggling. Lost for where to turn. Glad when they find a place that offers so much help in so many areas of their lives.
Above all else Knock is about the centrality of Mass in Catholic life. The Apparition Chapel drives that home. The altar. Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Mary, of course. St John with the open scripture in his hand, demanding we Catholics open our hearts it and stop the nonsense that we don’t need it.
Then there is the almost overlooked St Joseph in the corner. St Joseph the Worker. A reminder that how we work and live outside of Mass is a test of what Mass means to us. A warning that Mass is wasted on us if we leave it after us in the porch.
The annual Knock Shrine Novena starts on Thursday, August 14 and ends on Friday, August 22. This year the Novena has an important and welcome addition. As well as the usual Novena ceremonies, there are workshops and seminars in the Rest and Day Care Centre held twice a day.
These workshops and seminars will cover what many regard as one of the greatest needs of the Irish Catholic Church just now. Adult Faith Formation. We know only too well our Church has its problems. One of these problems is that many of us lack the confidence and competence to realise we each have something to offer the renewal of this troubled Church. We have faith, but feel we don’t know enough about it.
Pilgrims to Knock Shrine are generally people who have hung in when others have walked. That doesn’t mean they haven’t questions. They deserve a chance to hear those questions aired. Adult Faith formation is a fancy name for making this happen. That is what the organisers of these seminars have in mind.
Teenagers
I worked for a number of years in Knock. What I found was that pilgrims liked to talk. Being away from home helped. Meeting people in the same boat as themselves. Each with a story to tell. Even back then they had trouble with teenagers kicking up about Mass. These pilgrims were frustrated that they didn’t feel able to explain to them why they should go. They were getting tired of coping; tired of feeling like failures.
They had their own problems with their parts of their faith. Questions about some Church rules. Somehow life as they experienced it and the Church as they found it didn’t always match up. Adult Catholics of all shades are that. They’ve lived and have the questions we all gather as we get older.
They definitely don’t want our Church to be in the state it is in now. Not for themselves and not for their children or grandchildren. People hunger for something some call spirituality, for a meaning that might hold the bits together, for a vision that helps us make some sense of life. Catholics like to think their Church would help them in their search.
And that’s a bit of our problem. We look outside ourselves. To bishops, priests, to church committees and projects in the diocese. We wait and complain. Forgetting the only people who can renew our Church are individual people who first have committed to renewing themselves. Renewal of faith is not as spectator sport. It is a one-by-one personal decision.
One way to get the confidence and knowledge to start that personal renewal is through going to events like the workshops and seminars that are starting with this year’s novena.
The sessions will give a chance to adult pilgrims to hear speakers talk about faith. Hopefully they’ll explore the questions and doubts we all have from time to time but seldom get a space to air them. Pilgrims will share the sessions with others who have the same questions as themselves. A powerful way of realising you are not struggling alone.
This new part of the Novena is also a good chance for people who may not be doing the novena at all. People within striking distance of Knock. They can join the workshops as they wish.
This is an important initiative. Its success will depend on the speakers and everyone involved hitting the right notes. We pray they do.
When Msgr James Horan spoke about a basilica for Knock he usually added he had in mind a large umbrella to protect pilgrims from Mayo rain. It ended up rather more elaborate than that but he never let go of the umbrella image.
The basilica had an unofficial, premature opening in 1976 on a very wet and windy day in Knock. I suspect he waited for such a day to make his point.
That was 36 years ago. Now Fr Richard Gibbons, the Rector of the Shrine and his team are facing into a major renovation of the basilica. Some of these changes are necessary structural ones. He says the basilica has served its purpose well but now is a little tired and jaded.
More importantly he sees an opportunity to develop the basilica so that pilgrims will experience liturgy at its best. A basilica that will house Christmas and Easter concerts to enhance awareness of the importance of those feasts. A venue for national celebration of faith. A forum for ecumenical events. A venue for faith formation and catechetical programmes aimed at pilgrims.
This is one large agenda needing a lot of money. So was the basilica in 1976. So was the airport started in 1981 on Msgr James Horan’s famous wing and a prayer. It can be done!