Jubilee pilgrimage of the Hospitalité Notre-Dame-De-Salut (HNDS) to Rome
In April, a phone call led… to Rome!
We got the surprise of a phone call from Fr Vincent Cabanac A.A., organiser of the jubilee pilgrimage of the Hospitalité Notre-Dame de Salut (HDNS) to Rome between the 2nd and the 6th of May 2023. I subsequently received written confirmation: “Given your constant dedication to the National Pilgrimage, I will be very happy to spend these days with you… Having a Little Sister of the Assumption in our delegation is important because I want all the Assumption Congregations to be present“.
It was with joy and enthusiasm that I said “Yes
A brief history of the HNDS
In 1872, following the cholera epidemic that ravaged France, the outbreak of war with Prussia, and later the Commune insurrection, the Augustinians of the Assumption organised a pilgrimage to La Salette and in October of the same year to Lourdes. Nothing was organised to transport the sick from the hospital where they were staying to the grotto. The A.A. novices and the LSAs vied with each other in ardour and faith to transport them in wheelbarrows and then on stretchers. Finally, some dedicated men got together to do the work: the HNDS was founded. From this 1st National Pilgrimage, the LSAs were on site.
In May 1873, the HNDS organised a pilgrimage to Rome to ask for the salvation of France and to implore Pius IX, a prisoner in the Vatican, for his blessing. He gave them the Red Cloth Cross and our adopted motto:
Hence this jubilee pilgrimage to celebrate 150 years!
The 2nd of May: Departure from 57 rue Violet by taxi, we went straight to the meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope’s Secretary of State.
The Cardinal was very straightforward and helped me down the steps. “Coming to the Vatican is about enriching our faith in the Church“. He gave us a rosary, took photos with the five Congregations of the Assumption, and urged us to live the experience of charity by bearing witness to our faith: “Let your actions speak of Jesus Christ“, I said to him
3rd of May 7:30 am: Departure for the Pontifical Audience.
We heard the Pope’s catechesis . He then gave his blessing. He welcomed all the cardinals and bishops and came to greet all the people who, like us, were on the square,
He came up to us and welcomed us indivi-dually. The five disabled people in wheel-chairs, including me, were in the 1st row .
When His Holiness Pope Francis got to me, Vincent Cabanac introduced me: Sister Anne-Marie, Little Sister of the Assumption. The Pope replied: Little Sister of the Assumption, Little Sister of the Assumption! He showed enduring affection and great emotion, remembering Sister Antonia Maria, whom he had known very well since she had looked after him as a child, and his sister at birth. As Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, he celebrated 60 years of religious life with Sister Antonia and visited her regularly until her death.
On the 15th of August 2010, as Cardinal Bergoglio, he celebrated the centenary of the arrival of the LSA in Argentina.
Hence the great significance of this name for him.
He took my hand and said, “Pray for me!”
How can I express that at that precise moment when Vincent Cabanac presented me to the Pope as an LSA, I felt invested with all the acts of charity and love in the small gestures of all the LSAs who had preceded me… For me, who am nothing, a simple little sister, poor and sinful, that moment was extremely intense. I had no fear, no shyness, no pride: I was invested with all the good that the congregation had done since the beginning, in every country!
This jubilee pilgrimage of the HOSPITALITE DE NOTRE DAME DE SALUT to Rome gives me great cause to praise the Lord and thank Him from the bottom of my heart:
Pour tous les bienfaits dont tu nous as comblés,
And for all the benefits with which you have blessed us,
Lord, I give you thanks,
asking you to strengthen the faith, hope and charity
of all the hospitaliers of Hospitalité NDS
And may the younger generations take over from them.
Lord, THANK YOU for everything.
Sr. Anne-Marie Beaucire, LSA