Lourdes Grottos in Utah

I was able to find four Lourdes grotto replicas in the state of Utah, two of which still exist. I’m hoping to find more–please contact me if you know of others in Utah. Thanks!

Immaculate Conception Church/St. Francis of Assisi Church, Provo (1926, not extant)

Immaculate Conception Church in Provo was built starting in 1923 under the Rev. Joseph Delaire. By 1926, the basement of the church had been completed; it was used for services until the completion of the church above in 1936. A 1940 article in an unidentified publication, included in the NPS Nomination Form stated:

…the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. The basement, later converted into the parish hall, was utilized as a church until 1936. The shrine was and is one of the prides of the parish having been built by the pastor and the men of the parish of native rock carried from Rock canon, three miles east of the city. The late Edmund Kearns donated the two statues of the shrine.

National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: St. Francis Catholic Church (Provo, Utah), page 102

Sadly, the Lourdes shrine was removed in the 1970s:

At the rear (east) end of-the basement, a replica of the shrine and grotto of Lourdes, France, was erected by parishioners with stones from Rock Canyon and statues donated by the Edmund Kearns family of Salt Lake City. This grotto was removed in the early ’70’s to expand the downstairs social hall and add kitchen facilities.

National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: St. Francis Catholic Church (Provo, Utah), page 127

And the entire church building was torn down in 2008.

Academy of Saint Mary-of-the-Wasatch, Salt Lake City (1927, not extant)

St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic boarding school for girls, was established in 1875 in Salt Lake City by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, and in 1923, the school moved to 400 acres at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, (off Wasatch Drive near E. Michigan Ave.), according to a 2012 history of the school in Utah Historical Quarterly.

A Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes was constructed in 1927 and dedicated in June 1928. It was the scene of numerous large May Processions between that year and the closing of the school in 1970.

Here’s my detailed post about this grotto.

Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Magna (1958, extant)

A 1958 newspaper article announced:

Father Lawrence Spellen announces that the blessing of the newly constructed shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes will take place September 14 at 7:00 p.m. on the church grounds. Mass will be held at 6:00 p.m. The shrine was built by the Men’s Club of the parish…

The Magna Times, Sep 11, 1958

Father Spellen had just become pastor of OLOL Magna earlier in 1958, replacing Father Charles Freegard. A later newspaper article stated that:

Rev. Father Charles Freegard, now retired and residing in Magna, UT, will celebrate his golden anniversary into the priesthood on June 9th and a reception in his honor is being planned for May 13 in Magna, Our Lady of Lourdes church where Father built a grotto and served for many years….

The Times-Independent (Moab, Utah), May 2, 1985

A plaque that can be seen on another photo of the shrine reads: “In Memory of Demi Candelaria.” She was a Salt Lake City Catholic high school student who tragically passed away from meningitis as a teenager in 2003.

It’s possible that the shrine in front of the church was not the original grotto built in 1958–that one may have been removed at some point, and possibly the original statues were re-installed in a new shrine donated by the Candelaria family.

St. Jerome Newman Center, University of Utah, Logan (2020, extant)

A September 2020 article in the Intermountain Catholic announced the dedication of a new Lourdes grotto at St. Jerome Newman Center in Logan, one of the gratifying and hopeful growing number of new Lourdes grottos being built recently:

“Fr. Joshua worked with his hands every day” to construct the grotto, which is built of cement and rock, and has a small water feature, said Fr. Rogelio Felix-Rosas, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, who blessed the grotto on Sept. 13.
The Newman Center president, Nick Sauer, praised Fr. Santos, saying the priest “really rallied the students that were here this summer to get a lot done in a short amount of time.”

“I have always loved the Blessed Mother so much, and wherever I go for a mission I make sure that she has a place there,” said Fr. Santos, a native of the Philippines who began his ministry in the Diocese of Salt Lake City in 2018 on Sept. 8, the Nativity of Mary. During the blessing ceremony, Fr. Felix-Rosas thanked Fr. Santos for creating “this space for the Mother of God, a space to pray the holy rosary every day.”

Among those who helped build the grotto was USU student Matt Seas. The grotto is important, he said, because “as Catholics, we really go to [Our Lady] for grace.” “It adds a cool feature to our Catholic community here on campus,” said Carson Liesik, a Newman Center resident who also helped with the construction. The grotto gives another reason for people “to come by and just spend some time” at the Newman Center, and is another feature “that makes us known to the surrounding community,” as well as being a symbol of the faith, Liesik added.

Priest builds Marian grotto for Newman Center, by Marie Mischel, Intermountain Catholic, Sep. 18, 2020

The grotto has flowing water, and a raised flower bed in which to plant flowers. By the following year, a larger, painted statue of Our Lady of Lourdes had replaced the small unpainted one.

Additionally, I was able to find statues of Our Lady of Lourdes and Bernadette placed among rocks and gravel in front of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Helper, UT. A small plaque identifies them as being placed in memory of Rose Perrero (1918-2011), a longtime devoted member of that church.

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Below is a list of the Lourdes grottos, past and present, that I have located in Utah (although there certainly must be others: more private ones that have not been mentioned in digitized newspapers or online).

Type of Institution Key:
C=Church S=School M=Convent/Monastery H=Hospital O=Orphanage/Old Home I=Independent Pilgrim Site T=Cemetery R=Retreat P=Private Residence X=Other

State	City	Institution	Type	Name	Date(s)/Decade	Extant?	Address
Utah	Helper	St. Anthony of Padua Church	C	Lourdes & Bernadette statues	c.2011	yes	5 S Main St, Helper, UT 84526
Utah	Logan	St. Jerome Newman Center, University of Utah	S	Lourdes Grotto	2020	yes	795 N 800 E, Logan, UT 84321
Utah	Magna	Our Lady of Lourdes Church	C	Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes	1958	yes	2840 S 9000 W, Magna, UT 84044
Utah	Provo	Immaculate Conception Church/St. Francis of Assisi	C	Grotto of Lourdes	1926	no	182 N 500 W, Provo, UT 84601
Utah	Salt Lake City	Academy of Saint Mary-of-the-Wasatch	S	Grotto	1927	no	S Wasatch Dr. & E. Michigan Ave., Salt Lake City, UT 84108