This week's POB photo challenge by @friendlymoose is RELIGION. This is my first time participating in the challenge, which is a photo contest with a different theme each week. You can see the rules of the POB photo challenge HERE.

My photo was taken by me with an iPhone XR.

Saints Peter and Paul Church is located in New Braunfels, Texas. In 1918, a major influenza epidemic spread across the United States, causing many deaths. Father J.M.J. Wack led the parish members in constructing this grotto to commemorate the end of the epidemic.

The Grotto is modeled after the Lourdes Grotto in France where, in 1858, a young, peasant girl, called Bernadette Soubirous, saw a "lady" while playing near the grotto of Massabielle. Over the course of eighteen apparitions, Bernadette was given instructions by the "lady" to drink water from a spring which would appear inside the grotto, and to wash herself in it. She was also instructed to tell the priests to build a chapel at the grotto site.

To this day, Lourdes water continues to flow from a spring at the same spot where Bernadette discovered it. Pilgrims drink and bathe in Lourdes water for its reputed healing power. There have been seventy recognized miracles at Lourdes, the most recent, Sister Bernadette Moriau’s miraculous healing of spine disease, was recognized as an official miracle on January 10, 2018.

The Grotto at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church was constructed of native rock gathered from area ranches. The shrine was dedicated during a parish celebration on June 29, 1921.