On the Eve of the 1929 Great Depression, One Million Believers Descend on Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Praying for a Miracle

Martha Clark Cured at Holy Cross Cemetery. Photo by Leslie Jones

Was it the power of suggestion, or the power of faith?

In1929, just as the Wall Street Stock Market Crash devastated the country's financial stability and led to the Great Depression, rumors began to spread around Boston that a gravesite at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, MA was the source of miracles taking place.

It was the gravesite of Father Patrick Power, who was born in Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland in 1844. After his parents died in the Irish Famine, Power was sent to Boston to live with relatives. He was ordained a priest

in 1867 at Holy Cross Cathedral and was popular among his congregation. A frail person all his life, Power died of phthisis at age 25 on December 8, 1869.

Sixty years later, he became the source of hope for scores of faithful Catholics, and within days, hundreds of believers began showing up at the cemetery, hoping for a miracle for themselves or their loved ones.

"From Boston, from all New.England, from the outer-States and Canada came the sick, the halt, the blind, the faithful, the curious," wrote the Oklahoma Courier, adding "also quick-lunch vendors, souvenir postcard hawkers, trinket peddlers, troublemakers. From dawn to dusk, day after day, the slow-shuffling queue wound through the cemetery to the silent grave, heaped with flowers, surrounded with guttering vigil lights."

Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph 

The crowds grew so large that clergy and police officials had to set up crowd control, establishing regular hours and forming long lines around the cemetery to preserve order.

The Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph wrote that "a large hotel chain is reported seeking options on land across the street with the purpose of erecting a hotel if the miraculous curative powers attributed to the tomb become permanent."Among those seeking a miracle were Boston’s own Mayor-elect James Michael Curley, who brought his son to kneel before the shrine, and heavyweight boxer Jack Sharkey, "who knelt beside the tomb and prayed for recovery of his daughter. Dorothy, 4, who was born with little vision in her left eye." Boston's Cardinal William Henry O'Connell came to the site twice to observe the proceedings, but refused to say whether miracles had taken place.

Police Set up Orderly Lines for the Crowds, Photo by Leslie Jones

The local and national media reported that miracles were taking place. The Boston Post published a list of 150 cures that had taken place. Among them was Laura Moody of Dorchester, an orphan girl, whose advanced arthritis had left her with paralyzed lower limbs. Her physician, Dr. Leonard, examined the girl afterwards and declared, "The girl is a changed person and I can truthfully say that I had no inkling that she would recover SO completely. There is still a little stiffness in the muscles as is to be expected, but of her original complaint I can find no solitary sign."

The New York Times reported on November 21, 1929, "Inspired by a faith that has brought more than 1,000,000 persons to appeal for relief or cures at the grave of the Rev. Patrick J. Power, another tremendous outpouring of humanity filed into Holy Cross Cemetery here today, eclipsing yesterday's record-breaking week-day total of 55,000."