The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at Notre Dame has been a beloved place for quiet prayer and reflection since its construction in 1896. It is a one-seventh-scale replica of the Grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times between February 11 and July 16, 1858, to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, telling her that God loves humanity and calls people to personal conversion and prayer, and asking that a chapel be built near the site. The Church declared Bernadette's claims worthy of belief, and devotion to Mary as Our Lady of Lourdes grew. In 1841, the Congregation of Holy Cross sent Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., and six Brothers from Le Mans, France, to Indiana, where they eventually established the University of Notre Dame in 1842. Drawn by the events at Lourdes, Father Sorin returned several times to France and visited the shrine, but he died in 1893 before the present grotto was built in Mary's honor. Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., inspired by Sorin's devotion and aided by benefaction from Rev. Thomas Carroll, financed and built the grotto in only three months from large Indiana fieldstone boulders, and the priests and brothers of Holy Cross at Notre Dame continue to care for it. The grotto includes a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in an elevated niche and, at ground level, a kneeling Bernadette Soubirous praying the Rosary; Bernadette was canonized in 1933. The land extending from the grotto toward the lakes had once sloped from the Basilica to the water, and after the first Main Building burned in 1879, its remains were deposited there; during construction of the grotto, that charred debris was spread out and covered with soil to form the plaza. Its votive candles, burning day and night, symbolize the lasting blessing of offering thanksgiving, pleas, joys, and suffering before God and testify to the faith of countless believers.