Been there done that!! Beautiful Shrine!
Posted on 05/15/2009 8:06:46 AM PDT by GonzoII
While visiting Catholic Bamberg, we have already made a little excursion to Banz Abbey, about half an hour North of Bamberg in the upper valley of the River Main. As mentioned then, opposite Banz on the other side of the Main valley is the famous Shrine of the Fourteen Holy Helpers - Vierzehnheiligen - which we visit today. It is one of the chief works of one of, if not the most important German baroque architects, Balthasar Neumann.
The church is built around the site of a series of apparitions. On 24 September 1445, Hermann Leicht, the young shepherd of the nearby Cistercian abbey of Langheim, saw a crying child in a field. As he bent down to pick up the child, it disappeared. In a second vision a short time later, the child appeared again in the same spot. This time, two candles were burning next to it. In the following year, on 28 June 1446, Leicht saw the child a third time. This time, the child bore a red cross on its chest and was accompanied by fourteen other children, who were all dressed in the same manner, half red and half white. The child said: "We are the fourteen helpers and wish to have a chapel here, where we will graciously rest." Thereupon, the children disppeared in the clouds. Eighteen days after this last apparition, a fatally ill maid from Langheim was cured after invoking the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Immediately a pilgrimage began, and Langheim abbey, which before had been sceptical, recognised the apparitions. The first chapel was
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Been there done that!! Beautiful Shrine!
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