In 1873 these religious also began a series of large-scale pilgrimages both within France and to the Holy Land which developed into such current endeavors as the popular national pilgrimage to Lourdes every year on the occasion of the feast of the Assumption, gathering thousands of pilgrims.
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The Augustinians of the Assumption (A.A.) constitute a congregation of Catholic religious (priests and brothers), founded in Nîmes, southern France, by Fr.
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Emmanuel d'Alzon (1810-1880), vicar general of the diocese of Nîmes, on Christmas evening 1845 in Nîmes.
He took the name Pavel (Paul) when he entered the Assumptionist novitiate in Nozeroy, France, in October, 1938.