ADA, Ohio – To the village of Ada in the far northwest corner of the Diocese of Columbus, pilgrims trekked from Indiana, Michigan and all corners of Ohio this month to venerate a relic of St. Bernadette Soubirous.
Other visitors listed their native countries in the guest book from as far away as Germany, Mexico and Japan.
Also among the individuals and groups who came to venerate the relic was a busload of Eastern Rite Chaldean Catholics from the Detroit area.
The St. Bernadette relic, a fragment of a rib bone from the 19th century peasant girl whose visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary led to a shrine being built in her honor in Lourdes, France, resided at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Ada from Thursday, June 2 through Saturday morning, June 4 before being transferred to Lancaster St. Bernadette Church for three days of public veneration ending Monday, June 6.
A host of activities took place in Ada and Lancaster that included Masses with new diocesan Bishop Earl Fernandes, rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplet, candlelight processions through the streets surrounding the church, confessions and a sprinkling rite with holy water and a virtual pilgrim experience.
It had been a long, long time since the small church on Highland Avenue in Ada had seen such activity surrounding the display, which is supervised by the Sanctuary of Lourdes during its 41 stops from April 7 to Aug. 4 in the United States, including two in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen this many people in our humble little church in Ada, Ohio,” Father Ed Shikina, pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes, said on Friday, June 3 at the end of Bishop Fernandes’ first Mass outside of Columbus since his installation and ordination on May 31.
An estimated 300 people filled the small sanctuary and spilled over into an adjoining parish hall for the Mass, which was followed by anointing of the sick offered by Father Shikina and Bishop Fernandes, and the continuation of veneration and other devotions.
“It says in St. Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God,’” Bishop Fernandes said in his homily. “And Bernadette was pure of heart. She saw God, Who came to her through the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Being obedient to the Virgin, Bernadette found a stream of water, which has brought healings to thousands and thousands of people who journey to Lourdes. And today something from Lourdes has come to us. God wants to bring us His healing … and no matter where you are, God has not forgotten about you. … He wants to be close to you.
“You have all come here on a pilgrimage to receive healing from the Lord. Sometimes it will be in the form of a physical healing, sometimes a spiritual healing and the forgiveness of sins.”
Some of those who attended the Mass were parishioners. Some were afflicted with various ailments hoping for healing and spiritual consolation. There were young families and older folks. One gentleman carried holy water from Lourdes that his father had brought back from World War II.
One family drove 2 ½ hours from Bronson, Michigan, which is located near the intersection of the Ohio, Michigan and Indiana borders, to bring a special boy to be close to St. Bernadette.
His name is Rogan. He’s 7 years old. He uses a wheelchair, and he’s afflicted with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy and a multitude of other physical issues.
And he’s a miracle.
The boy’s grandmother, Yvonne Klingler, brought him to Ada because of a devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette.
“He has been a miracle since he was born, and the opportunity to see the relics of St. Bernadette and the Lourdes tour was an opportunity we had to seize since we would never be able to travel to Lourdes, France,” Klingler said. “My mom, Sylvia Yearling, found out about the tour, and we decided we were making the journey. It was such a moving experience, very emotional.”
Rogan was injured at birth after his mother had a placental abruption three weeks from her due date and one week from a scheduled C-section.
Because there was minimal blood flow and oxygen after the one-hour delivery, Rogan was unresponsive.
“The doctor decided to play God and thought his life wasn’t worth saving,” Klingler said.
Klingler’s mother brought her some water to baptize the child. Immediately after she finished and stepped out of the nursery, he began to respond.
“The doctors asked me what I did, and I told them I just baptized him,” she said.
Rogan had severe newborn hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which is surface and deep tissue brain damage. He suffered six strokes in utero and after delivery.
Klingler explained that a portion of his brain, the basal ganglia, had died, and he was left with just spinal fluid and basal cysts in that area.
Shortly after birth, he was transported from a local hospital in Coldwater, Michigan to the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Brandon Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) about 1 ½ hours away for additional treatment.
The family was told that Rogan would not leave the NICU. Three-and-a-half weeks later, Rogan came home.
Since then, life has been anything but easy for Rogan and his family.
In late September 2019, Rogan returned to the University of Michigan children’s hospital with pneumonia and spent the next 6 1/2 months there.
He suffered numerous complications from acute sepsis, including life-threatening seizures from a medication, severe reactions to three different antibiotics, and anaphylaxis, which is a potentially fatal allergic reaction.
“I stayed with him for most of his long stay and began a very long devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette because the doctors didn’t know what was causing the seizures,” Klingler said. “They didn’t know what to do for him or where to go.
“So, in December, I ordered some vials of water from Lourdes to give to Rogan as I prayed to Our Lady. And I gave him the Lourdes water, and I bless him with it every night still.
“She revealed to me it was the medication that was causing this, and I searched the web and found a medical journal article about the severe side effect for children with Rogan’s seizure disorder from a common drug, Baclofen.”
Yvonne presented the information to Rogan’s physician, Dr. Tsovinar Sorkin, and her grandson’s treatment team removed him from the medication. She credited the doctor and this discovery as instrumental in Rogan’s recovery.
At that point, he was put on a ventilator due to lung problems and tracheomalacia, a condition caused by weak cartilage surrounding the trachea. The doctors advised the family that Rogan, now age 5, needed a permanent tracheostomy, a hole created in the front of the neck to aid breathing.
On April 14, 2020, Rogan went home from the hospital. He weighed 35 pounds and was 42 inches tall.
Two years later, Yvonne said he has thrived while growing to 75 pounds and 52 inches tall.
“We are so blessed and thankful for the gift Rogan is for our family,” Yvonne said. “He is a sweet and special boy.”
Bishop Fernandes blessed Rogan after the Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes.
“It was a truly humbling experience, from the holy presence of St. Bernadette’s beautiful reliquary, the people that were so kind to us, the beautiful holy Mass that Bishop Fernandes offered for us all, and Father Ed Shikina, and the help from such a beautiful parish community,” Yvonne said. “We cannot express our gratitude for this experience and the blessings that we received from so many people and Our Lady and St. Bernadette.
“Rogan is our little saint, a victim soul.”
