Devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes in Croatian Music Composition

Abstract

Devotion to Our lady of Lourdes has always been, and still is, cherished by the Croatian people, and so many generations of Croatian musicians have enriched the treasury of Croatian Marian hymns with songs inspired by their devotion to Her. As proof thereof, it suffices to point out that in twenty-two prayer books and twenty-two hymn books from the year 1895 to 2006, twenty-one canticles have been preserved which were dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. Some of these were taken from foreign sources, others came about through the creativity of reverent common folk and compos- ers of the Cecilian and post-Cecilian periods as well as of modern songwriters.