Sunday nearest February 11
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 on February 11 during the blessing of a newly built Grotto. The diocesan pilgrimage takes place on the Sunday closest to February 11, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 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.)Also celebrated this date:
 | Our Lady of Lourdes, Earlwood, Canterbury, New South Wales, Australia. Mass and blessing of the sick. |