Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto

435 Montreal Road

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1K 0V2

Description In 1871, Cyprien Triolle had the idea of establishing a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes inspired by the Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes grotto in France. He won the support of brothers Joseph and Michel Cyr, and Michel even donated two acres of land near the church in Cyrville. The first pilgrimage took place on 29 July 1888. In 1887, the Archbishop of Ottawa, Msgr. Joseph-Thomas Duhamel, decided to transfer the Cyrville parish from secular clergy to the Montfortain priests of the Company of Mary, who also served the parish of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in Janeville (later Eastview, then Vanier). The grotto was also transferred to Janeville. 

It was erected in the marsh and blessed on 18 September 1910 by Msgr. Morice, Bishop of Haiti. The pilgrimage took place on 6 May 1911. The Montfortain fathers made many improvements over the next several years: the Calvary (1915); the first Stations of the Cross (1933); a store selling religious items (1935). The small statue of Father de Montfort, installed in 1939, was replaced in 1960 with a new statue from the Montfortain retirement home in Lauzon, Quebec. When the Montfortain fathers sold part of their property, nearly half of the grotto site was lost. 

In 1993, the grotto was turned over to the parish. 
(description from Flickr)