Vierzehnheiligen

The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints venerated together in Roman Catholicism because prayer to them was thought to be particularly effective, especially against various diseases. This group of Nothelfer (emergency helpers) originated in the 14th century at first in the Rhineland, largely as a result of the epidemic (probably of bubonic plague) that became known as the Black Death.

The fourteen holy helpers are honored in Bavaria as the vierzehn heiligen, to whom the Rococo pilgrimage church in the hamlet of Bad Staffelstein near Bamberg, designed by Balthasar Neumann (built –1774) is dedicated. On September 24, 1445 the Franciscan monastery’s young shepherd, Hermann Leicht, saw a crying child in a field—one that happened to belong to the nearby Cistercian monastery of Langheim. As he bent down to pick it up, it suddenly disappeared. A short time later, the child reappeared in the same spot and this time, two candles were burning next to it. In June 1446 the shepherd saw the child a third time, this time carrying a red cross on its chest and accompanied by thirteen children. The child said to the shepherd: ‘We are the 14 helpers and wish to erect a chapel here, where we can rest. If you will be our servant, we will be yours!’ Shortly after, the shepherd saw two burning candles descending to this spot. Soon, miraculous healings began, through the intervention of the fourteen helper saints.

The Franciscan brothers in the monastery erected a chapel, which immediately attracted pilgrims. An altar was consecrated as early as 1448. Pilgrimages to Vierzehnheiligen continue to take place each year between May and October.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vierzehnheiligen

I recenlty made three of my own pilgramages to the Basillica Vierzehnheilige, the first in a car with my roomate. Unfortunately we left too late in the day and were unable to view the interior. The second on bikes with Wes and Andy, unfortunately the 43km bike ride was not as nice as it could have been as it started to rain quite heavily on the way there. But on the plus side I did buy 10 Brötchen. Wes ran out of bock so he took the train back to Bamberg and Andy and I rode up to the basillica. There were several signs around saying that we should respect the sanctity of the church and wear proper attire and whatnot. Andy and I were covered in sweat, he was wearing tights, I was wearing shorts but they were his sunday finest tights so we went in and looked around at the Baroque interior and then caught the train back. My most recent trip was with Bill, a friend of Ashley's visiting for the World Cup. We left at around 9am and finally had beautiful weather. My bike was out for repairs and since Bill was only here for a month, he didn't have a bike so I rode Meredith's bike (think girliest of all girlie bikes) and Bill rode Mark's Real bike (which had some difficulties going through the gears). Total we rode nearly 90k, so I was pretty exausted when we got back at 3pm. It was a beautiful ride, and the view was amazing unfortunately I accidentally deleted my pictures from the trip, but hopefully I'll be able to get Andrew's pictures sometime soon.