History of Our Lady of Lourdes
The story of Lourdes is one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of the Catholic Church — a story of faith, humility, and miraculous grace that continues to inspire millions of pilgrims every year.
Before the Apparitions
In the mid-nineteenth century, Lourdes was a small, unremarkable market town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. The Soubirous family lived in deep poverty, having lost their mill and moved into a former jail cell known as the Cachot. Bernadette, the eldest of their surviving children, was a frail and asthmatic girl with little formal education. Nothing in the circumstances of her life suggested that she would become the recipient of one of the most significant Marian apparitions in Church history.
The Eighteen Apparitions
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous at the Grotto of Massabielle along the Gave de Pau river. During these apparitions, the Lady asked Bernadette to pray the Rosary, do penance for sinners, and have a chapel built at the site. She instructed Bernadette to drink from and wash in a spring that did not yet visibly exist — and when Bernadette dug in the mud, a spring began to flow.
On March 25, 1858 — the Feast of the Annunciation — Bernadette asked the Lady her name. She replied in the local Gascon dialect: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” This title, which Bernadette did not understand at the time, confirmed the dogma that Pope Pius IX had proclaimed just four years earlier in 1854.
The Miraculous Spring
The spring that Bernadette uncovered during the ninth apparition on February 25, 1858 has flowed continuously ever since. The water was soon associated with healings that defied medical explanation. Pilgrims began to visit the grotto in great numbers, and accounts of cures multiplied rapidly.
Today, the spring produces approximately 32,000 gallons (120,000 liters) of water per week. The Lourdes Medical Bureau, established in 1882, investigates reported healings using rigorous scientific criteria. To date, the Church has officially recognized 70 miraculous cures at Lourdes.
Church Recognition
Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence of Tarbes established a canonical commission to investigate the apparitions. After a thorough four-year inquiry, he issued a pastoral letter on January 18, 1862, declaring that the Blessed Virgin Mary had indeed appeared to Bernadette and authorizing public devotion at the grotto.
The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was extended to the universal Church by Pope Pius X in 1907 and is celebrated on February 11 each year. In 1992, Pope John Paul II established the World Day of the Sick on the same date, linking it permanently to the healing charism of Lourdes.
The Sanctuary Today
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world, welcoming approximately six million visitors each year. The complex includes the original Grotto, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, the underground Basilica of Saint Pius X (which can hold 25,000 people), the baths, and numerous chapels and prayer spaces.
Daily activities at the sanctuary include Masses in multiple languages, Rosary processions, the candlelight Marian procession in the evening, and Eucharistic adoration. The baths remain open for pilgrims who wish to immerse themselves in the spring water.