Carfin Grotto
Following a trip to France's principal Marian shrine at Lourdes, Taylor's vision was to build a religious memorial in honour of the Virgin Mary based on the template of the Grotto of Massabielle.
The grotto shrine offers a pilgrimage season with Sunday processions, rosaries, outdoor Masses and dedicated feast day events which run annually from early May until late September.
Starting with a bare field in 1920, a frantic period of endeavour driven by the faith and zeal of the volunteers resulted in the shrine being largely complete within two years.
The Grotto's central scene depicted Our Lady's appearance to Saint Bernadette in a bricked, terraced garden which included an altar for outdoor Mass, when the West of Scotland weather allowed.
It also contains a life-size representation of Jesus' life with Mary and Joseph in their Loretto house and carpentry shop, which is depicted in a cave, a Reliquary, as well as a sunken garden.
This admiration began when he learned of Lisieux's young Sister Therese's life during his frequent visits to France in the early 1900s where devotion to the Carmelite nun rose rapidly following her death in 1897.
In the Summer of 1901, the Canon was urged by a priest friend, Father Bernard Lynch, to read the new English translation of the young French nun's inspirational autobiography by Michael Daziwicki, a polish professor.
[4] The Canon was so moved by the young nun's life story that he contacted the enclosed Carmel convent in Lisieux and built a strong bond with the Prioiress, Mother Mary of Gonazaga, and with St. Therese's three surviving sisters who were also Carmelite nuns in the Lisieux convent, with a view to helping promote the life story of this extraordinary young woman.
Quickly, Canon Taylor became an acknowledged expert on the life and work of St. Thérèse and, beginning in 1902, published regular articles in Catholic newspapers of the day of to engender broader awareness of the young Carmelite nun of Lisieux throughout the United Kingdom.
The Canon took the unusual step of collecting these opinions and sending copies to the Superior of the Carmelite convent in France where St. Thérèse had lived her vocational life.
The Mother Superior's advice was that the statue should remain in its location, and she predicted that the Carfin Lourdes Grotto would enjoy large numbers of pilgrims as a result.
[7] By the time of Canon Taylor's death in 1963, the Carfin Lourdes Grotto enjoyed a high national profile and attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims annually.
Daily Mass is now celebrated in this glass chapel, now named Our Lady, Maid of the Seas after the ill-fated aircraft from Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed near the Scottish town of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.
