VIDEO: Hundreds Venerate Relics of St. Bernadette in Dyker Heights
DYKER HEIGHTS — Hundreds of people wait on the sidewalk in Dyker Heights — not for a concert, not for a celebrity, but for pieces of a saint.
Their devotion has brought them to the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette to venerate first class relics of the 19th century French nun that are currently on tour in the United States.
“We have a devotion, all of us, the entire neighborhood to her healing powers to the world,” said Marguerite Lindsay.
Inside, people had rosaries and medals touched to a 132-lb reliquary holding pieces of St. Bernadette’s bones, hair, muscle and skin. In front of the altar were rocks from the grotto in Lourdes where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858.
While 72 medical miracles have been attributed to St. Bernadette — Sean McCann says he’s not asking to be number 73.
“She’s always been in my life in some way shape or form,” McCann said.
Instead McCann says what he needs most is strength.
“I’m not looking for a cure. I’m not being like, save me or anything else like that. I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think that’s what God or saints are for. I think they’re more so there to help you find strength and figure out a way through whatever comes at you,” he said.
Pastor of St. Bernadette Fr. Jeremy Canna says for those who have never and will never make it to Lourdes — this is a once in a lifetime chance.
“I hope that they’re able to spiritually unite themselves with Lourdes and a sense of God’s healing in their life,” Fr. Canna said.
The relics of St. Bernadette will make more than 140 stops across the United States ending in the fall of 2027.