Blogs

By Ann Zlotnik

Marian Library archivist Kayla Harris has taken on a project that she would never have considered six months ago: archiving websites and collecting personal stories of the ways people are practicing devotion to the Blessed Mother during the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

“In early March, Liz Hutter, a professor in the English department, brought her Narrative and Medicine class to the Marian Library to look at primary source materials about healing at the Lourdes Shrine in France,” Harris explains. “We discussed what impact the coronavirus might have on the baths at the shrine, which draws thousands of people each year who hope the water of the baths and prayers to Mary will cure them. After class, I noticed that the Lourdes shrine website still encouraged pilgrims to visit the Shrine, even as COVID-19 cases and deaths were multiplying across Europe. It was then that I realized how urgent it was to collect and document the ways people are appealing to the Blessed Mother in a worldwide health crisis.”

This is an ongoing project, but some of the findings have already been added to the Marian Library’s website. For more direction on how to share your personal Marian devotion during the pandemic or to suggest a story or website add to the collection, please see “Documenting Devotion to Mary in Troubled Times.”