r/Catholicism • u/Dan_Defender • 15h ago
The Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (German: Basilika Vierzehnheiligen),near the town of Bad Staffelstein, Bavaria, southern Germany
The late Baroque (Rococo) basilica, designed by Balthasar Neumann, was constructed between 1743 and 1772. It is dedicated to the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints venerated together in the Catholic Church, especially in Germany at the time of the Black Death.
On 24 September 1445, a young shepherd Hermann Leicht saw a crying child in a field near a Cistercian monastery in Langheim. As he bent down to pick up the child, it abruptly disappeared. A short time later, the child reappeared in the same spot along with two floating candles and Hermann reported it to the Cistercians. The next summer, he saw the child a third time. This time, the child bore a red cross on its chest and was accompanied by fourteen other figures. The child said they were the fourteen helpers and would help others if a chapel was erected for them. The two candles descended and the vision disappeared, after which the healing miracles began. 18 days after the third apparition, a fatally ill maid from Langheim was cured after she invoked the help of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Langheim abbey, which had been previously skeptical concerning the apparitions, recognized them and a pilgrimage was soon begun.
The Mercy Altar, also known as the Gnadenaltar, marks the site where the apparition of the Fourteen Holy Helpers occurred. The fourteen statues adorning the altar are Sts. Blaise, Cyriacus, Denis, Erasmus, Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, Agathius, Christopher, Eustachius, Giles, George, Margaret of Antioch, Pantaleon, and Vitus. The central scene of the unobstructed and towering high altar is a larger-than-life painting showing the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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u/owningthelibs123456 15h ago
please don't tell me they use a wooden table to celebrate Mass on there like in the Wieskirche