14 How the Church Has Changed the World widow and her son, in the years of famine. The grotto of Massabielle had no glorious spired basilica on it then. It was a muddy and miserable place, a watering hole for pigs, where the Gave River washed up all kinds of garbage, some of which the poor children would gather up and sell. Bernadette wasn’t there to play a game. The other girls had crossed the river, which was so cold it made them cry. Bernadette needed to get across too, so she asked the girls to toss some rocks into the water for stepping stones, while she was busy sitting down, taking off her stockings. That was all she was thinking of, the practical matter of getting across the river without bringing on an attack of her asthma or ruining the stockings. Then she turned and saw a lady dressed in white, silently saying the rosary. She didn’t know who it was. She even told the girls to keep quiet about it. She didn’t trust her judgment. That’s why she brought holy water to the grotto the next time she felt drawn to visit it, to splash upon the lady, in case it was an evil spirit. But the lady smiled. She told Bernadette to come to the grotto every day for a fortnight. We might say that the pilgrimages began then. Her family came with her. People in the village came. The police had to come to keep order. Curiosity seekers came. Scoffers and skeptics came. Christians came.
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