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 marian
anniversaries february
Notre Dame de Yagma, Kadiogo, Centre, Burkina Faso
In 1967, construction began on a Lourdes grotto on a hill
near Yagma, 8 miles from the capital of Burkina Faso in west Africa. The
shrine hosted its first pilgrimage in 1968 and was completed April 22,
1969. In 1978, construction of a church began, still unfinished for lack
of funds. In the 1980s, a young woman named Marie-Rose Kaboré and members
of her prayer group began reporting apparitions and messages from Mary and
Jesus there. Her vision of the assassination of Marxist president Thomas
Sankara October 11, 1987, drew attention to the shrine when it came true
four days later. The Bishop of Kaya, Msgr. Constantin Guirma, approved the
apparitions in 1994, but as they became more apocalyptic in content, the
Church declined to promote them, while admitting that they contributed to
the popularity of pilgrimages to Yagma. On January 29, 1990, Pope John
Paul II visited Yagma and donated a statue of the Virgin, installed two
weeks later during the blessing of a newly built Grotto on February 11,
the Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and anniversary of the 1854
apparitions in France.
The diocesan pilgrimage takes place on the first Sunday in February, with participation from a wide region
extending into the Ivory Coast. Since 1996, the shrine has hosted another
big diocesan celebration on August 15, Feast of the Assumption.
(Information from Eglise du Burkina, www.egliseduburkina.org,
and other sources. Grotto detail from "Prière donnée par la Vierge
Marie à Marie-Rose Kaboré (Burkina Faso)," Ave Crux, Ave Crux, Ave
Crux, parousie.over-blog.fr/article-31155768.html.) |