A story for Memorial day

Throughout the country on this day people are remembering loved ones, friends, neighbors etc.,

who were lost in war, especially World War II, the Korean war, Vietnam and Afghanistan…

But the people of St. Benedict, Kansas remember the miracles…. The residents of St. Benedict

built St. Mary’s church in 1893… a church that’s plain on the outside and so gorgeous on the

inside that it later was a finalist in the statewide contest to be one of the “8 wonders of Kansas”.

But the miracles started later…

In 1936, not long before World War II began, the young men of St. Mary’s parish built a rock

grotto to Our Lady; when the war broke out, those same young men were sent to Europe and/or

the Pacific to fight. And every night at 7:30 the parishioners would gather at the grotto to pray

the rosary before the statue of Mary, for their young men at war. The practice continued with the

Korean war and, later, Desert Storm… and every single time, the “St. Benedict boys” were

spared – not a single one was lost. So on Memorial Day, they remember the miracles…