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