Eight days after his cure he paid me a visit, rejoicing in the happiness of being able to walk freely.... A student of Burglauer, near Murmerstadt, had lost for two years the use of his legs; and though he was only partially relieved by the first and second prayer of the Prince, at the third he found himself perfectly well."
Father Mathew was very successful in relieving the sick; after his death multitudes visited his tomb, and of these many were helped and left their crutches there.
In all parts of Roman Catholic countries, and in the Greek churches of Russia, great stacks of crutches, canes, and splints may be seen, which have been left by those who, as Dr. Tuke says, "there is no reason to doubt, have been cured and relieved of contracted joints by the prayers offered at some shrine, or by the supposed efficacy of their relics." Similar results have been seen in Montreal, Canada, within a few years, at solemnities connected with the deaths of certain bishops, one of whom had performed many cures through a long career.
It cannot be denied that many cures occurred at Knock Chapel in Ireland; and also at Lourdes in France, whose fame "is entirely associated with the grotto of Massavielle, where the Virgin Mary is believed, in the Catholic world, to have revealed herself repeatedly to a peasant girl in 1858." This place is resorted to by multitudes of pilgrims from all parts of the world, whose gifts have rendered possible the building of a large church above the grotto, "consecrated in 1876 in the presence of thirty-five cardinals and other high ecclesiastical dignitaries." The gifts have been made by devotees, many of whom claim to have been cured of ailments that defied medical treatment; besides, a large trade is carried on in the water,
