Six Local Pilgrims Journey Afar

     As Christmas draws near, the important holiday is all the more meaningful for a group of local women. In October, six Britton women, Laurie Stiegelmeier, Linda Deutsch, Flo Hart, Audrey Schuller, Mavis Krista and Delores Morgan, made a pilgrimage across Europe to several sites of Christian importance. The women, all parishioners of St. John de Britton Catholic Church in Britton, shared the details of their journey and how it has changed their hearts and lives. 
    Stiegelmeier was the impetus behind the trip. She says the seeds of the pilgrimage date back decades to when she was a child. When she was seven, she learned the story of the Miracle of Fatima where three peasant children, Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia were blessed with the presence of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Stiegelmeier, who was sick in the hospital, felt a kinship with the children and always desired to see that holy site. 
    Throughout her life, she continuously wanted to make a pilgrimage, but said something always came up. Then, early this year, she decided to make a concerted effort. She started researching pilgrimages online and different resources to make such trips, Stiegelmeier finally committed to the idea earlier this year.  She shared her plans at her Catholic book club and encouraged some of the other ladies there to join, and to her delight, six others were interested. “I wasn’t afraid of going alone, but it would be great to have companions I could share it with,” Stiegelmeier emphasized.  
    Mavis Krista would be one of the fellow travelers. “I really hadn’t planned on going on the pilgrimage,” Krista said. “But one Sunday after Mass, the ladies were going to register for the trip and were encouraging me to go along.  After some thought, I decided if I were ever to go on a trip like this, these were the women to go with as they are so knowledgeable and strong in their faith.  I left church, registered for the trip and I am so glad I did.”
    The fateful date for the pilgrimage arrived in October. After one lady had to drop out due to an injury, six local pilgrims boarded a plane in Fargo on Oct. 15. Stiegelmeier explained that the experience was booked through a company called Catholic Journeys. This worked well as the company supplied guides and did all the planning, including booking hotels and travel throughout Europe.
    The women arrived in Lisbon, Portugal on the third day of their journey and soon ventured to Fatima, the very place that inspired the whole trip for Stiegelmeier. She was not disappointed. The group visited several sites in the area including where Mary appeared to the three children, the Basilica there and the graves of two of the children who were later declared saints. 
    “The museum of gifts given to Mary in thanksgiving for answered prayers and intercession was a highlight,” said Stiegelmeier of Fatima. Among the gifts, is the bullet fired to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. He credited Mary with guiding the bullet and it fits perfectly into a crown that was made for her statue from donations of jewelry by Portuguese women in the 1930s, as if it was made for it.
    Deutsch too found the Fatima site meaningful. “Our first day in Fatima was declared a ‘World Day of Prayer’ by Pope Francis due to the conflict between Israel and Gaza,” she said. “That evening we attended the Candlelight Procession of Mary. The Rosary was said prior to the ceremony. Each decade of the Rosary was said in a different language, and everyone answered in their own. There was total unity among thousands. It was very moving.”
    Over the next days, several more significant stops were made throughout Portugal, Spain and finally France. They visited a Carmelite Convent in Coimbra. They toured the Convent of the Poor Clare’s and had Mass in Alba de Tormes. The group explored Avila’s walled city and Santa Maria Cathedral in Burgos.
    On day seven, the pilgrims arrived at Lourdes in southern France. This would be a special place for several of the women. Lourdes is the location where the Virgin Mary had appeared to St. Bernadette 18 times in the mid 1800s and had her dig the well in the grotto that still flows to this day.  The group stayed in this area for over two days. 
    Flo Hart said this stop was a highlight for her. A moving candlelight evening prayer procession started out the experience. “During the next two days we attended Mass, a healing service, made the Way of the Cross and visited the baths,” said Hart. “People are invited to pray and wash your hands, face, and drink some of the crystal-clear water.  It was an extremely emotional experience for me, made more personal by having someone very close to me dealing with cancer.  It truly is breathtaking to be in such a holy place.”
    Krista particularly enjoyed the Stations of the Cross they celebrated at Lourdes. “This entailed climbing a steep mountain where the path was rocky and uneven,” Krista stressed. “Each Station was beautiful with life-size statues set in the natural beauty of the mountain, and with the meaningful prayers and music, the whole experience was very moving to me.”
    Audrey Schuller also found praying the Stations to be stunning. “It was a quite strenuous walk uphill and we prayed them from the point of view of Mary and the depictions of Jesus were very striking.”
    As she reflects back on the trip, Delores Morgan commented that Lourdes in general was a special place for her as well. “The entire trip was wonderful, but the visit to Lourdes was awesome,” she said. “It was a very busy place with lots of people, souvenir shops and yet it was a very peaceful place. I came away with such a sense of wonder and peace.”
    The South Dakota pilgrims would next embark on the final leg of their journey to Rome and Vatican City where they would be stunned by a papal audience as well as art and other spiritual sites. Read next week’s Journal for the continuation of their travels.