Visitors to Madonna House are soon introduced to an unusual and beautiful statue of Mary, Mother of God, hidden among the tall pines next to what we call the Main House. Her official title is Our Lady of Combermere, and this site has been a place of pilgrimage and prayer in a quiet, hidden way since 1960.
Both Catherine and Eddie Doherty had a profound sense of Mary’s presence from the very beginning of their settling permanently to Combermere in 1947. Finally, through some truly wondrous and miraculous circumstances, contact was made with a sculptor who was able to create ‘questing Madonna’ that was exactly the way Our Lady wanted to be portrayed under her new title.
Our Lady of Combermere (also called the Questing Madonna) is pictured running with arms outstretched to embrace all her children and meet them in their need.
June 8, 1960, the day the statue was blessed by Most Rev. William J. Smith, the bishop of Pembroke, was one of the most important days in our history. Our Lady of Combermere became known as the mother of our community, sent by her Son to protect us and guide our journey into the heart of her Son.
In accepting to play her unique role in the Lord’s saving plan, Mary is a model for us in learning to listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Through her intercession we receive the grace to become, like her, a humble instrument in the hands of our loving God.
Our Lady of Combermere Prayer
O Mary, you desire so much to see Jesus loved. Since you love me, this is the favor which I ask of you: to obtain for me a great personal love of Jesus Christ. You obtain from your Son whatever you please; pray then for me, that I may never lose the grace of God, that I may increase in holiness and perfection from day to day, and that I may faithfully and nobly fulfill the great calling in life which your Divine Son has given me. By that grief which you suffered on Calvary when you beheld Jesus die on the Cross, obtain for me a happy death, that by loving Jesus and you, my mother, on earth, I may share your joy in loving and blessing the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit forever in Heaven. Amen.
Our Lady of Combermere, pray for us.
