on our recent holiday , has a well in the grounds where you can fetch Holy Water , and my Catholic neighbour brought me a bottle of such water from a pilgrimage to Lourdes .
The Knock Shrine ( Irish Cnoc Mhuire , Hill of Mary ) is not as ancient as Walsingham , but built at roughly the same time as the Walsingham revival ., where in 1879 observers stated there was an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary with St Joseph , St John the Evangelist and angels , as well as Jesus Christ in the form of a Lamb . As at Lourdes and Fatima , this occurred at a time of social upheaval , and people looked for a stabilising factor in the Church . Witnesses were said to have stood for up to two hours in the pouring rain reciting their rosaries , while the place where the Holy Figures had stood remained dry . We did also experience a huge downpour ourselves on that place and did not remain dry .
Yet I am still fascinated at the association of the vision with water . An Irish anthropologist , Dr Peter Mulholland , took this in 2011 as part of a case study , exploring a range of explanatory theories . He highlights the interaction of social context , family structure and catholic tradition , in generating the ( quote ) “ kind of quotidian life experiences that have sustained magical ‘ devotionalism ’ and facilitated the spread of New Age healing beliefs and practices in modern Ireland .”
There is also another side to water , which has always been a sign of richness . Huge swimming pools and spas are signs of wealth , floating in water with high salt concentration is a rather luxurious way of relaxation , cities have always shown with monumental fountains , how well they can supply their citizens with water , and lately there has been a European initiative called ‘ Right 2 Water ’, which wants to establish access to clean water as a human right . Although we have experienced water as something that can be bought and sold , water is not the usual kind of ware ; poor people must not be excluded from a water supply . Lack of water can cause conflicts between states , more frequently now with climate change . For instance , there had been extreme draught in Syria before the Civil War , which led to failed harvests and the movement of more than 1.5 million people into towns . There are projects for large damns in Ethiopia which led to tensions with neighbouring Tadzhikistan . Western governments are involved in peace making projects to give funds and know-how to states in similar disputes , like at the Nile and Mekong rivers .
Luckily , a river in common is not only a border but also something that can unite nations , as Germany has experienced with the River Rhine , which in time past was seen as sacred to the German Nation , and proved to be quite an unholy water .
Brigitte Williams
StOM Page 9