Behind St. Patrick’s Church in Jaffrey, nestled in a stone archway, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary, in a quiet place for prayer and reflection. Throughout this year, the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus have been working on the monument, restoring it and bringing it to new prominence for the church.
The grotto behind the church was built in 1934. A young parishioner told the priest that he had seen a vision of a woman in the woods behind the church. According to the history of the church on the St. Patrick’s website, a boy, aged 10 or 11, was attending Sunday services during the summer with a group of Boy Scouts from a local camp. The boy insisted he could see a Madonna-like apparition behind the rectory, repeatedly telling Father Peter J. McDonough, “A lady is standing there.”
The boy was so persistent in his assertion, the church history says he underwent an examination for mental soundness, and finding nothing amiss with him, McDonough ordered the grotto built where the boy had seen the vision of the woman.
John Stone, the Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Council 8544, the Jaffrey chapter, said since it was built, the grotto has become a popular place for reflection among St. Patrick’s parishioners, both for reflection and prayer and for wedding photographs. But since it was built, the area had become overgrown, and lime deposits had begun to grow over the local stone of the altar.
One of the members of the Knights of Columbus was before the altar one day, and took a photograph. Despite it being a sunny day with a blue sky, he noticed in the photograph a rainbow, running from the hand of the statue of the Virgin Mary and over her heart. It seemed to be a sign that the restoration of the altar was their next project, Stone said.
“We started small, just by removing the lime deposit off the rock,” Stone said. “But the project kept expanding.”
At first, Stone said, he didn’t know how much they would be able to accomplish, because they only had a small budget for the project.
The Knights of Columbus regularly holds dinners and other benefit events to raise money for their service projects, but were unable to hold many of those fundraisers in the last year, due to COVID-19, so their coffers were not as full as they usually would be, Stone said.
But it seemed too important a project to not do their best.
“Eventually, I said, ‘Don’t worry about the money. We’ll find it,’” Stone recalled. And indeed, the funds needed for a more expansive project to cut back the encroaching foliage, landscape the area around the altar and install new custom lights did come, as community members donated to support the ongoing project. What started as a project with a $3,000 budget grew to one with a $14,000 budget through a local fundraising campaign.
“Every time we hit a roadblock, something came through. So, we said, ‘OK, what else can we do?’” Stone said.
Now, even with work still ongoing, the grotto looks like a new place, Stone said.
“It was so grown in, I didn’t even know there was a cross at the top of the stone, because you just couldn’t see it,” Stone said.
With more money to do more than just spruce up the stones, the Knights of Columbus planted 12 rhododendron bushes, to represent the 12 apostles, and reseeded the lawn. In the fall, they plan to add more perennial plantings, and install a granite bench.
The Knights of Columbus currently has a GoFundMe page to collect donations for the completion of the project, which is available at www.gofundme.com/f/knights-of-columbus-grotto-restoration-project.