Order of Malta brings thousands who need healing to Marian shrine, grotto

Detroit — There might not always be a physical healing, but “nobody leaves Lourdes the same way they came, and everybody leaves with a story,” said Peggy Stanton, a Grosse Pointe native and Dame of the international Order of Malta.

One of the oldest lay religious orders in the world participates each year in one of the oldest Christian traditions — caring for the sick — by bringing them to a place internationally known for its treasury of God’s healing mercy: Lourdes, France.

It was in Lourdes where the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, and the grotto that now marks her appearance has seen 69 officially recognized miraculous cures since — a number that doesn’t do justice, Stanton said, to the thousands of others that haven’t been as meticulously documented.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta, as it is known internationally, has been bringing malades — the French word for “sick person” — to Lourdes for healing since 1958. The massive weeklong pilgrimage each year in early May brings more than 6,000 pilgrims — Knights and Dames of the order, auxiliary, clergy, doctors and nurses — who sponsor, pay for and care for the malades “24/7,” said Stanton.

The week includes several special Masses, reflections and processions in and out of the area of Lourdes known as the “domain,” where the apparitions took place, with members of the order pushing malades in “voitures,” or carts, to and from the shrines and healing baths.

“Once they’re there, they’re treated like royalty. I always say, if you want to be treated like a queen, jump into a wheelchair in Lourdes because people are just almost fighting to take care of you,” said Stanton, who also serves as communications liaison for the Order of Malta’s American Association, one of its three U.S. chapters. “It brings out the very best in everybody. People who are CEOs and doctors and lawyers are used to a certain amount of service; but they’re the ones who are giving the service. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

 

Archbishop’s involvement

This year, 408 pilgrims — members, malades and caregivers — accompanied the American Association, which encompasses Michigan. Among them were New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, chaplains of the association who have attended several times in recent years.

Though the archbishop is often asked to lead major Masses and Eucharistic processions, “he is very devoted” to caring for the malades, said Dan Kelly, a Bloomfield Hills native and former president of the American Association who missed this year’s pilgrimage for the first time in 13 years but said each visit to Lourdes is a “spiritual experience.”

“He’s gone several times, and he loves it,” Kelly said. “I would say he’s unusual in the way he devotes his time to the malades. Some fly over on their own or just participate in spiritual activities and don’t pay much attention to the malades, but Archbishop Vigneron is terrific. He does everything, and he’s very much respected because of that on that trip.”

This year, the archbishop’s involvement included leading a Eucharistic procession for thousands in the domain and celebrating the pilgrimage’s final Mass, but it also included confessions, anointings and even sacraments of initiation, Stanton said.

“He gave first Communion to a malade who was just 7 years old, a little boy who has a prosthesis and had been quite ill,” she said. “Everyone is very fond of him. He’s just so humble, which is the most attractive characteristic any member of the clergy or any of us can have.”

 

‘The ultimate healing’

Stanton, who hosts a radio show called “Power from the Pews” on Ave Maria Radio, said “people always ask” whether she’s seen any miracles during the nine years she’s participated in the pilgrimage, but “I feel as though I see them daily when you’re there.”

Physical cures do happen, she said, citing the story of a 10-year-old boy who had never spoken a word in his life suddenly starting to speak and a woman with cancer who visited the shrine as a teenager and is now a healthy mother of four.

But the greatest miracles can’t always be seen, she said. During a radio show on this year’s pilgrimage, Stanton said she interviewed the widow of Jim Long, a man with Lou Gehrig’s disease who died last year in Lourdes.

“We have never lost a malade, ever. That was the first time in 30 years despite taking people with severe illness,” Stanton said. “But his wife has a marvelous faith and saw that as a healing — the ultimate healing, of course, which the Church says is to go home to God.”

“He did come hoping for a physical cure, as his wife said. But when he went into the baths … he was saying a prayer and looking at a statue of Mary, and suddenly there was just a glow about him. He was smiling,” Stanton said. “(The doctor said) there was something going on that he didn’t understand. He had a conversation with Our Lady, and his wife conjectures that his prayer changed that day. His prayer for a physical cure changed to, ‘Lord, if you’re not going to give me a physical cure, have mercy on me.’”

Stanton said Archbishop Vigneron was “very helpful” in making sure Long received his last holy Communion, and “two days later, he received God’s mercy and went home.”

The Order of Malta is involved in several other charitable activities in Michigan and across the world, but the pilgrimage holds a special place for those who attend because of its direct connection to the order’s charisms of caring for the sick and poor and defending the faith, Stanton said.

“It’s the signature event for us,” she said. “It really encompasses everything we stand for.”

“So many malades if they don’t get the physical cure they hoped for come home with the ability to look at their illness differently. They’re very much at peace.”

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Order of Malta

To learn more about the activities and membership of the Order of Malta in Michigan, visit www.orderofmaltaamerican.org/areas/michigan.

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Order of Malta ministries

The Michigan area of the Order of Malta’s American Association is involved in several charitable works in the Detroit area. These include:

Order of Malta Medical and Dental Clinic, which operates from St. Leo Church in Detroit and has provided free care to thousands who lack the ability to pay.

Rose Hill Center, a comprehensive psychiatric treatment facility for adults with serious mental illness, based in Holly.

Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, a pro-life apostolate that sponsors rosary processions and prayer vigils on Detroit’s east side.

Mary’s Children Family Center of Michigan, which offers day care for children with brain injuries and operates from the campus of Guardian Angels Parish in Clawson.

Hope Clinics, which offer medical, dental and social services to low-income children and adults at several locations.

Angels’ Place, which provides a Christian-based home for the developmentally disabled at several locations.