Lourdes — the grotto of Massabielle

OVERVIEW

Lourdes is a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Between 11 February and 16 July 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a miller, reported eighteen apparitions of a Lady at the grotto of Massabielle just outside the town. She described her as wearing a white veil and a blue girdle, with a golden rose on each foot, holding a rosary of pearls.

HISTORY

The local clergy were initially sceptical. A canonical investigation followed, and on 18 January 1862 the bishop declared that the Virgin Mary had indeed appeared to Bernadette. Her last visit to the grotto was on 16 July 1858, when she said: 'I have never seen her so beautiful before.' She was canonised in 1933. In 1958 Pius XII issued the encyclical Le pèlerinage de Lourdes for the centenary.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Lourdes is unusual in this file for having a standing scientific body attached to it. The Bureau des Constatations Médicales examines claimed cures and refers them to an international medical committee; of many thousands of claims, a very small number have been declared medically inexplicable by that process. The entry records the reports, the canonical investigation that tested them, and the medical apparatus that has outlived everyone involved.

VISITING

The sanctuary is open and free, and receives millions of pilgrims a year — a great many of them sick or disabled. It is a place of active devotion and should be visited as one.