Cemetery grotto restoration in Naperville completed
It is a time to celebrate historic preservation. It is a time to honor our ancestors’ contributions to our community. It is a time to rejoice in the completion of the year-long restoration of the 100-year-old stone grotto at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery at 911 North Ave. in Naperville.
A rededication field Mass will be held at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 6, on the grotto patio and all are welcome to attend.
This Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto was designed and constructed by the strong, gifted hands and fervent hearts of local master craftsmen Paul P. Baumgartner and Arthur (Art) Miller, my grandfather. They left a lasting legacy built of fossil-filled stones from a Lockport quarry, which were part of the ancient massive inland Silurian geologic period.
The grotto honors Marie Bernadette Soubirous, who had 18 encounters with the Virgin Mary in a mountain cave along the banks of the Gave River in Lourdes, France, in 1858. The Holy Mother asked Bernadette, who would later be canonized a saint, to pray for peace and requested a chapel be built nearby.
The Marion month of May honors the Virgin Mary so it was fitting Marion Restoration was hired to do the extensive work needed to restore the cemetery grotto.
Phase 1 involved power washing lichens, moss, mold, sediment and mildew from the discolored rocks. Phase 2 included tuck pointing wall cracks, stabilizing loose stones, veneering the steps and seat, waterproofing two roofs and “reshingling” the main exterior dome. Wing walls were disassembled and concrete footings poured, lost pieces of the storage room cross replaced and frontal arches stabilized.
The Catholic Diocese of Joliet installed LED ground-level lighting and two new metal benches and repaired the paver brick patio. Rosary gardens encircle the grotto, fashioned from recycled Naperville sidewalk bricks and native field rocks. The perennial plantings have Biblical references.
It is a sacred, consecrated place of prayer, peace and remembrance. Let us rejoice!
Carolyn (Lauing) Finzer, Naperville
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