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Saturday, April 15, 2017

Visit from NOMADS friends and Ave Maria Grotto

Cullman, AL

Long time readers of this blog (when it was under a different name) might remember a posting about the Ave Maria Grotto here in Cullman.

The Ave Maria Grotto is on the grounds of the St. Bernard Abbey which is a Benedictine monastery.  The Abbey was founded in 1891.  The Grotto is the work of Brother Joseph who was born in Bavaria in 1878.  In 1892 he came to the Abbey.  When not in prayer or shoveling coal in the power house, he constructed miniature buildings from stone, concrete and donated items such as broken glass, jewelry, tiles, beads, marbles, seashells and variety of such items.

Yesterday was a perfect day to take a stroll through the Grotto.  A group of NOMADS friends are volunteering at a site about 40 miles from Cullman.  We made arrangements for Leonard and me to meet them at the Grotto and then to lead them back to our house for lunch and a nice visit.

Here are scenes from the Grotto





I got so busy visiting and talking and eating I neglected to take a good picture of our visitors when we got back to the house.  And the camera was sitting on the end table right in full view!  This is the only picture I took of them.  Left to right:   Leonard, Patrick, Marti, Harriett, Bill.




Life size stature of Brother Joseph.  He was only about 5 foot tall.


If you are ever near Cullman, the Grotto is well worth the few dollars admission and a visit.  Oh, and we are worth a visit too!  No admission.

4 comments:

  1. What a great place to visit I could spend hours looking at every detail.
    Thanks for sharing

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  2. I love the Grotto. Thanks for all the beautiful photos.

    Wishing y'all a very blessed and happy Easter. He is Risen!

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  3. What a great place! I bet your house is worth a visit sometime too :)

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  4. Somehow i missed this post probably because we were just moving back onto our site and it was Easter Weekend.
    That looks like a great place to visit and explore. We'll definitely be adding it to our Must See List.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete