Coudersport PA – A silver rose on a nine-month pilgrimage was the centerpiece of a special prayer service at St. Eulalia Roman Catholic Church in Coudersport on Saturday, August 26^th.  The program is sponsored annually by the Coudersport Knights of Columbus Council # 1355 to honor our Lady of Guadalupe and express both international unity and dedication to the sanctity of human life.

The journey of the silver rose begins each year in March and ends on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. During that time, Silver Roses travel from town to town along eight routes throughout North America. Several of those routes begin in Canada and end in Mexico.

The Silver Rose Program began in 1960, when the first rose – a real, live one – was blessed by a bishop in Ontario. The rose then traveled to New York and then to Texas where it was taken across the border into Mexico. The rose ended its pilgrimage at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Monterrey on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. To better ensure future annual trips, a silver rose was ultimately made. Today, due to the popularity of the program throughout the North American continent, eight silver roses travel unique routes.

In 2001, when Carl Anderson, Past Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, expanded the Silver Rose Program, he commented: “Through [the Silver Rose Program] we honor not only Our Lady of Guadalupe and express the unity of the [Knights of Columbus], but we also reaffirm the Order’s dedication to the sanctity of human life. It is to the Blessed Mother that we turn in prayer as we work to end the Culture of Death that grips our society. As we think in terms of ‘One Life, One Rose,’ it is most appropriate that we turn to Our Lady of Guadalupe who made known her will through Juan Diego and the miracle of the roses.”

The service was offered to parishioners and any member of the community to pray for a civilization of love and culture of life in our own country and throughout the world.

Council 1355 in Coudersport is one of 17,000 Knights of Columbus councils that make up the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in 1882 to assist working-class and immigrant Catholics in the United States, today the approximately two million members of the Knights put their faith into action through a broad range of charitable causes locally, nationally, and internationally through financial contributions and hands-on service.

(front l-r: Ron Nelson, Jason Tingley, Father Chris Wheeler, David Spacht-PA State Warden, Chris Fink-Grand Knight

Back l-r: Richard Buchanan, Dave Matzinger-District Deputy, Tom Gooch, Matt Miller)