When ISIS overtook Iraqi cities at the peak of its jihadi fury, it was their custom to remove or destroy statues of Jesus and Mary in their wake; however, this absence of sacred symbols will soon be just a memory for Christians in several Iraqi cities as 15 new statues of Our Lady of Lourdes are now being installed.

Fides.org is reporting on the arrival of the statues, which were blessed by Bishop Nicholas Brouwet in Lourdes and driven by truck to the Nineveh Plain. They are now being erected in the Iraqi cities of Qaraqosh, Telkaif, Alqosh, Karamles and other towns where marauding ISIS fighters left their statues and churches in ruins.

The initiative was the idea of Father Pascal Gollnish, general director of the French Catholic Association L’Oeuvre d’Orient, who visited the region and witnessed the large number of destroyed crosses and statues of Jesus and Mary. He arranged for the new statues to be blessed and transported to the area where relocation ceremonies of the statues are now taking place. The joyful events are being attended by bishops, priests, and lay men and women, many of whom are just now returning to their homes after years in exile.

The relocated statues are of great comfort to the Christians in those areas and a sign that life might finally be coming back to normal.

As Fides reports, “Now Christians of those cities and villages can pray again in front of Our Lady of Lourdes, who gave them strength during their exile.”

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