Page:MaryHelpOfChristians.djvu/182

 serve thee."  Then  the  group  of  children  disappeared, and  the  shepherd  boy  was  filled  with heavenly  consolation.

The following  Sunday,  after  he  had  driven  his flock to  the  pasture,  it  seemed  to  him  that  he saw  two  lighted  candles  descending  from  the  sky to the  place  where  he  had  seen  the  apparition. A woman who  was  passing  at  the  time  declared  that she also  saw  them. The boy  hastened  to  the monastery and  told  about  the  two  apparitions. The abbot,  Frederic  IV,  and  the  rest  of  the  community, were  not  inclined  to  believe  in  the  apparition, and  ascribed  it  to  the  boy's  visionary  fancy. But when,  in  the  course  of  time,  several  extraordinary favors  were  granted  to  people  who prayed at  the  place  of  the  apparition,  the  monks built a  chapel  there. It was  begun  in  1447,  and* finished and  dedicated  next  year  under  the  invocation of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  and  the  Fourteen Holy  Helpers. The bishop  granted  an  indulgence for  the  day  of  the  anniversary  of  the dedication, the  Papal  Nuncio,  Cardinal  Joannes, granted another,  and  Pope  Nicholas  V  a  third. These indulgences,  and  a  number  of  other  spiritual privileges  granted  to  the  chapel,  attracted  a great  many  visitors,  so  that  it  became  a  place  of pious  pilgrimage. Elector Frederic  III,  in  fulfilment of  a  vow  made  when  beset  with  difficulties, visited the  chapel  in  1485. Emperor Ferdinand