The Liverpool hospitalité is a voluntary organisation associated with the annual Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 Archdiocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes

Lourdes

Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...

. The Hospitalité of Our Lady of Lourdes (Liverpool Branch) spend their pilgrimage caring for those who need support both while travelling and whilst in Lourdes. They also provide support for registered sick and disabled pilgrims who are able to stay in hotels. Like all Hospitalités of Lourdes it is connected to the Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes

Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes

The Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes a Roman Catholic religious confraternity under the spiritual authority of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, and works closely with the Rector of the Sanctuaries and his pastoral team. The HNDL is governed by a President and a council...

.

The first official Liverpool Pilgrimage took place in 1923, during which Mr Jack Traynor

Jack Traynor

John Traynor, from Liverpool, was a former Royal Marine severely wounded during the First World War. He lived as an invalid until 1923 when, upon his own insistence, he joined with fellow Catholics from the area and journeyed to the Catholic shrines at Lourdes....

, a man with severe war wounds, was spontaneously cured. He lived to return to Lourdes acting as a brancardier many times and was one of the pre-war Presidents of the Brancardiers Association.

Until November 1927, when Liverpool Association of Handmaids was formed, the volunteers to help the nursing staff with the care and transportation of the sick pilgrims were obtained by simply appealing to actual pilgrims either just before departure or in Lourdes itself.
With the ever increasing numbers of sick cases it was realised that a permanent organisation of voluntary helpers who would be prepared to work in raising funds and to go as often as possible with the Liverpool Pilgrimage was needed.

The Association came into being at a meeting held in St John's Hall, Kirkdale in November 1927 and so regular work in assisting with the Pilgrimage on an all the year round basis began.
During 1928 the Confraternity of the Hospitalité of Lourdes was raised by the Holy Father to the rank of an Archconfraternity with the power to affiliate similar diocesan organisations and in July 1928 a petition was sent to Lourdes for affiliation of the Liverpool Association. This was granted, and so all our registered members are entitled to gain the indulgences of the Archconfraternity.

In the years of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 there were no Pilgrimages, and the opportunity was taken after consultation with the Lourdes Hospitalité - to revise the constitutions of the Brancardiers and the Handmaids Associations. The new constitutions were approved and signed by the Archbishop of Liverpool on May 14. 1948, with subsequent revision in 1974. In 1998 the constitution was comprehensively amended and this combined Brancardier and Handmaid associations.

The hospitalite present their members with service medals. After three years service a hospitalier will receive a heart shaped medal with a blue bar, after five this will be replaced by one with a red bar and for 10 years service a yellow bar is received. These medals are not worn as a decoration they are merely to indicate the level of experience that member has. This is reflected by the fact that there are no further medals received after 10 years despite some members having served with the Hospitalite for as many as fifty prilgramages.

Related

• Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes
  Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes
  The Hospitalité Notre Dame de Lourdes a Roman Catholic religious confraternity under the spiritual authority of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, and works closely with the Rector of the Sanctuaries and his pastoral team. The HNDL is governed by a President and a council...
  
  
• Catholic Association Pilgrimage
  Catholic Association Pilgrimage
  The Catholic Association of the UK, abbreviated to the CA, has been around in one form or another since 1881 and ran its first pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1901...
  
  
• Liverpool Archdiocese