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Where Heaven Touched Earth WHERE HEAVEN TOUCHED EARTH WHERE HEAVEN TOUCHED EARTH: ENCOUNTERING PLACE AND PERSON AT LOURDES By MICHAEL AGNEW, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Michael Agnew, December 2014 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2014) McMaster University (Religious Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Where Heaven Touched Earth: Encountering Place and Person at Lourdes AUTHOR: Michael Agnew, B.A. (Nipissing), M.A. (McMaster) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Ellen Badone NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 363 ii ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with pilgrims travelling from the United Kingdom to the Marian Catholic shrine of Lourdes in southwestern France, this study examines the experience of contemporary pilgrims to Lourdes and the motivations that inspire them to visit the shrine. As a pilgrimage site that now attracts an estimated six million visitors each year from a diverse range of geographical, social, and religious departure points, the motivations inspiring pilgrims to visit Lourdes can be elusive and disparate. From volunteer caregivers striving to “be as Christ” through their assistance to sick pilgrims, to first-time visitors to Lourdes navigating the shrine through the camera lens of a Hollywood film, this study moves through a wide range of pilgrim experiences. While such experiences underscore the inherently multivalent nature of pilgrimage, I show how the trope of authenticity emerges as a rhetorical device that recurs frequently in the narratives and discourse of pilgrims who undertake the journey to Lourdes. Experiences described by pilgrims as “authentic” are critical in informing their engagement with the geography of the shrine and with fellow pilgrims, and often inspire return visits to Lourdes in subsequent years. In dialogue with studies on pilgrimage and other forms of travel, I argue that despite its conceptual baggage authenticity still matters, and offers a useful heuristic lens for exploring those factors which shape and determine the experience of pilgrims to Lourdes. I suggest that from the perspective of pilgrims, Lourdes is a “thin space” where heaven touched earth and which affords the authentic possibility of transcendence, of collapsing the boundaries between self and other, human and divine. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Ellen Badone, whose guidance, expertise, and encouragement throughout my fieldwork and during the writing of this dissertation proved invaluable. Her careful reading of each draft and our long conversations aided in clarifying and refining the direction of my work. I will always be grateful for her constant support and encouragement throughout my time at McMaster. I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. Celia Rothenberg and Dr. Travis Kroeker for serving on my supervisory committee, and for their support and thoughtful comments on my work. I also thank Dr. John Eade at the University of Roehampton, for sharing his own experience and insight on research at Lourdes. This research would not have been possible without the support of several scholarship programs and research travel grants, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the School of Graduate Studies Grant in Aid for Research Travel and Fieldwork, the Mary Margaret Scammell Travel Scholarship, the James F. Harvey and Helen S. Harvey Travel Scholarship, as well as research grants from the Department of Religious Studies and the Graduate Students Association at McMaster University. This project also would not have been possible without the assistance and openness of the pilgrims to Lourdes I met and interviewed during the course of my fieldwork. I would like to thank the Catholic Association, the Archdiocese of Westminster, and Tangney Tours for allowing me to join their respective pilgrimages, for facilitating my research, and for always being eager to provide assistance when necessary. I would also like to thank the many pilgrims who shared their stories and were so generous with their time. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their love and support throughout the writing process. I would especially like to thank my parents, Kevin and Nancy Agnew, for everything. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi CHAPTER ONE Introduction: “Come Here in Procession” 1 CHAPTER TWO “Let Me Be as Christ to You”: Pilgrimage and Faith-Motivated Volunteer Caregiving 52 CHAPTER THREE Pray and Play: Pilgrims, Tourists, and the Commercial Geography of Lourdes 145 CHAPTER FOUR “Spiritually, I’m Always in Lourdes”: Perceptions of Home and Away among Serial Pilgrims 201 CHAPTER FIVE Mediating Mediums: Encountering Lourdes through The Song of Bernadette 252 CHAPTER SIX Thin Spaces: Encounters with Place and Person 319 BIBLIOGRAPHY 344 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. 13 Figure 2. The Grotto of Massabielle. 22 Figure 3. The Marian Torchlight Procession. 26 Figure 4. Procession Banners of the Catholic Association. 36 Figure 5. Passage Through the Grotto by Westminster. 39 Figure 6. The Accueil Marie Saint-Frai. 64 Figure 7. The Accueil Notre-Dame. 71 Figure 8. Blessing of the Helpers’ Hands Service. 80 Figure 9. The Westminster Accueil Farewell Party. 105 Figure 10. The Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross. 133 Figure 11. Pilgrims Being Led Through the Low Stations. 169 Figure 12. The Cirque de Gavarnie. 173 Figure 13. The Pont d’Espagne. 174 Figure 14. The Château Fort de Lourdes. 186 Figure 15. Vending Machine Selling Religious Souvenirs. 196 Figure 16. The Religious Souvenir Shop “Tourisme et Religion.” 199 Figure 17. Mass at the Cathedral of the Trees. 236 Figure 18. Film Poster for “Je m’appelle Bernadette.” 300 Figure 19. Map of “In the Footsteps of Bernadette” Trail. 305 Figure 20. Le Cachot. 310 vi Ph.D. Thesis – Michael Agnew McMaster – Religious Studies I Introduction: “Come Here in Procession” “Go, tell the priests to have people come here in procession and to build a chapel here.” -Message of Our Lady to Bernadette, March 2, 18581 On an unusually grey and cold July morning I am pulling my heavy suitcase at a brisk pace as I make my way toward St. Pancras International, a recently redeveloped rail station in central London that serves as the British terminus for the Eurostar line, connecting the island to continental Europe. With my yellow train voucher from Tangney Tours in hand, I am about to set out on a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Lourdes in southwestern France with the annual pilgrimage of the Archdiocese of Westminster. After obtaining my tickets from the train manager for Tangney Tours (a pilgrimage tour operator based in Kent), I pass through security and border control before searching for the familiar faces of pilgrims I had met in the weeks leading up to the pilgrimage. I soon find Fr. Colin, a parish priest from west London, and some of his parishioners who are also making the trek to Lourdes. As we wait for our 8:20am departure to Paris we excitedly chat about our expectations for the week, and those pilgrims with several years and even decades of experience travelling to Lourdes share their tips and insights with me. Eventually our conversation is interrupted by the boarding call, and we begin our ascent up the 1 Sanctuary of Lourdes – Official Guide (Lourdes, France: NDL Editions, 2010), 16. 1 Ph.D. Thesis – Michael Agnew McMaster – Religious Studies escalators to the train platform. After assisting with the luggage of elderly pilgrims unable to lift their suitcases up and into the overhead compartments, I eventually find my assigned seat at a small plastic and metal table for four and settle in for the journey, looking forward to seeing the countryside of southeast England as the high-speed train whisks by on its way to the Channel Tunnel. I am soon joined by my three seatmates for the journey from London to Paris: Eleanor and Philippa, a mother and daughter from outside the diocese but who prefer to come with this particular pilgrimage, and Stephen, a man in his early thirties considering a vocation to the priesthood. Since I am meeting them for the first time on the train journey, they quickly spot my unusual accent and make a sort of game out of guessing its origin. Eleanor and Stephen determine that I am American, while Philippa concludes that I am Irish, or perhaps more specifically from Northern Ireland. When I reveal that I am a graduate student from Canada doing a research project on the experience of pilgrims to Lourdes, all appear genuinely interested in my fieldwork, Eleanor and Philippa readily offering to be interviewed before I have even asked. Stephen however asks the question I have long anticipated with some apprehension before commencing my fieldwork: “So, if you’re coming on the pilgrimage and doing research, does that mean you’re a Catholic then?”2 I nervously begin to struggle through my answer, unsure of how it will be received, as I explain that while I was raised as a Catholic and had attended 2 Field notes, July 22, 2012. 2 Ph.D. Thesis – Michael Agnew McMaster – Religious Studies Catholic elementary and secondary schools, I no longer practice. Having been quite devout up until the age of 20, and still deeply familiar with the rites and rhythms of the Catholic faith, I could perhaps have taken an easier route, and provided a more ambiguous answer, something like “I was raised Catholic.” That option would have left pilgrims to make their own assumptions. Yet as I set out to engage in participant-observation research grounded in open-ended interviews with pilgrims, I thought it was vitally important to be as open, approachable, and straightforward as possible. After all, I hoped for the same openness from pilgrims as they recounted their stories.
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