Work was then begun, modestly at first, but soon on a larger and larger scale as money began to flow in from all parts of Christendom.

The Grotto was cleared and enclosed with an iron railing.

The Gave was thrown back into a new bed, so as to allow of spacious approaches to the shrine, with lawns, paths, and walks.

At last, too, the church which the Virgin had asked for, the Basilica, began to rise on the summit of the rock itself.
From the very first stroke of the pick, Abbe Peyramale, the parish priest of Lourdes, went on directing everything with even excessive zeal, for the struggle had made him the most ardent and most sincere of all believers in the work that was to be accomplished.

With his somewhat rough but truly fatherly nature, he had begun to adore Bernadette, making her mission his own, and devoting himself, soul and body, to realising the orders which he had received from Heaven through her innocent mouth.
And he exhausted himself in mighty efforts; he wished everything to be very beautiful and very grand, worthy of the Queen of the Angels who had deigned to visit this mountain nook.