Our Lady of Lourdes
Europe · France
What happened
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old girl, claimed to have seen eighteen apparitions of "a Lady" in the grotto of Massabielle, just outside Lourdes, in the diocese of Tarbes. She described her as dressed in white, with a blue sash and a white veil, a yellow rose on each foot, and praying the Rosary beside her. On March 25, the Lady revealed her name in the Béarnais dialect: "I am the Immaculate Conception," an expression whose theological depth the young girl did not understand, as the dogma had only been defined in 1854. Obeying the Lady's request to drink and wash at a spring, Bernadette dug in the grotto floor, and a spring gushed forth that continues to flow to this day.
The message of the Virgin
The Lady asked for "penance, penance, penance" and prayer for sinners. She accompanied Bernadette in praying the Rosary, silently passing the beads except for the Glory Be. Her self-identification as the Immaculate Conception underscored the Marian dogma proclaimed a few years earlier, and the water from the spring, linked to the seer's obedience, remained a sign of inner purification and, in some cases, physical healing.
The sanctuary today
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes comprises the grotto of Massabielle, the basilicas of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of the Rosary, and St. Pius X, and a large visitor complex. It is considered one of the world's major pilgrimage sites, attracting approximately six million pilgrims annually, according to the sanctuary itself. The Bureau des Constatations Médicales (Bureau of Medical Confirmations) has been located there since 1905, and the International Medical Committee of Lourdes scientifically evaluates the cures attributed to the event.
The Church's recognition
Following a diocesan commission, the Bishop of Tarbes, Monsignor Laurence, declared in his 1862 pastoral letter that the Immaculate Virgin Mary had indeed appeared to Bernadette, and authorized its veneration. This is, therefore, an apparition with supernatural significance recognized by the local bishop, predating the 2024 Norms of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which today would generally reserve a judgment of nihil obstat.
A grace that touches the heart
By 2018, the Church had recognized seventy miraculous healings out of some seven thousand reported, following rigorous medical investigation. The most recent case is that of Sister Bernadette Moriau, a French woman who had been wheelchair-bound for 42 years due to a severe neurological condition. After the blessing of the sick in 2008, she stood up and walked, and her healing was officially recognized as the 70th miracle of Lourdes in 2018.
Link with the Rosary
The Lady appeared praying the Rosary, and the sanctuary has one of its basilicas dedicated to it. Lourdes teaches that the Rosary is a path of penance and conversion, a simple prayer in which Mary accompanies the soul as she accompanied Bernadette in the grotto.