Often pilgrims will visit Marian shrines and want to take something home from the apparition site. For example, those who go to Lourdes typically bring home a bottle of water from the shrine in hopes that it will be an instrument of God's healing.
Similarly, after the apparitions occurred in Knock, Ireland, pilgrims immediately wanted to take something from the shrine of Our Lady with a hope for healing.
Knock cement
At the apparition site, many pilgrims in the 1880s took pieces of cement and distributed them to their friends and family.
Oddly enough, those pieces of cement would become instruments of God's healing in the lives of many people.
Donahoe's Magazine published an article at the time that narrates several instances of miraculous healing:
Thursday the 24th of August 1882 will be recorded as a red-letter day in the annals of Knock. On that day Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Hobart Town, declared to the congregation assembled within the walls of the Church of Knock that he been cured in his Tasmanian house by the Knock cement...the precious Knock cement sent by Archdeacon Cavanagh to a Sister of Charity residing in Hobart Town and by her given to Dr. Murphy, the afflicted Bishop, soon made his eyesight well again and from the altar rails of the Church of Knock on August 24th, Right. Rev. Dr. Murphy proclaimed to the world that he himself was a living evidence of the stupendous favors showered by Our Lady of Knock on her suppliant suffering and devoted clients all the world around.
Fr. Dominic Feehan recounts a similar story in an article for Home of the Mother magazine:
Many miracles such as healing miracles have been documented at the Shrine. Miracles began as soon as ten days after the apparition. A young girl, Delia Gordon, had experienced deafness and pain in her left ear. While visiting the apparition site, her mother put a small piece of cement from the wall of the church into her ear. Afterward, during Mass, Delia experienced an excruciating pain in her ear, followed by a complete healing of her deafness and no further pain
The various miracles that occurred through the application of Knock cement highlight the reality that God can use anything to be his instrument of healing, just as he used mud and spittle to heal people in the Gospels.
The cement itself does not heal the people, but their faith and the prayers of others call upon God's power to bring about a miracle.
