Our Lady of Lourdes

The most miraculous and visited Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the world is that of Our Lady of Lourdes. I, myself experienced the cool, healing waters as I took a plunge and the miracle of feeling warm air and drying me off immediately after the bath.

Lourdes is a small village in the South of France near the Pyrenees mountains. It is here that the Blessed Virgin Mary chose to reveal herself as the Immaculate Conception to 14 year old Bernadette Soubirous in a place called Massabielle, where the city dumped its garbage. Massabielle was a dark, rocky place with a grotto covered with bushes. It was in a hollow near one of the big rocks that the Virgin Mary appeared on February 11, 1858.

Bernadette Soubirous was a weak child, who had asthma and was also a poor student in school. The Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette 18 times with the last visitation on July 16 of the same year. She was the only one who saw her and heard her.

Bernadette tells us in detail: “She has the appearance of a young girl of 16 or 17. She is dressed in a white robe, girdled at the waist with a blue ribbon which flows down around it. A yoke closes in graceful pleats at the base of the neck: the sleeves are long and tight-fitting. She wears upon her head a veil which is also white; the veil gives just a glimpse of her hair and then falls down at the back below her waist. Her feet are bare but covered by the last folds of her robe except the point where a yellow rose shines upon each of them. She hold on her right arm a rosary of white beads with a chain of gold shining like the two roses on her feet.”

It was on the ninth apparition that the Blessed Virgin Mary told Bernadette to “Drink from the fountain and bathe in it.” Because there was no fountain or any kind of spring water, Bernadette began to scratch the ground until a pool of water appeared. She drank from it and washed her face in the muddy water. She was also asked to eat the grass near the water, which she did obediently. The next day, the water was overflowing and a pool of spring water appeared. This is the water that has miraculously cured many people, 68 cases of which has been fully approved by the Bishop of Lourdes and by the Roman Catholic Church. A basilica was then built at Our Lady’s request and the statue placed on the hollow of the rock was crowned.

There are plenty of doctors in Lourdes headed by Dr. Patrick Theillier, Lourdes Medical Bureau. They do not work to recognize a miracle but the opposite. Their task is to try to explain the cure with a physical cause. The case is passed to an international medical committee and the patient who experienced a cure have to go through 200 to 300 doctors to certify the claim of miraculous, scientifically unexplainable healing therefore qualifying it to the next level of examination with the Bishop and the Church officials themselves. There are 3 Criteria: First is the medical evidence of the illness through x-rays, blood analysis, hospital diagnosis, etc. Second, modern medicine must not be able to cure the illness. And third, there must be perfect healing or healing must be definitive and not just dormant.

Many cures took place in Lourdes not just physical but also emotional, inner healing and spiritual conversions. This has made a tremendous impact to so many people that Lourdes is full of pilgrims year round. In Lourdes, Christ passes through the crowd and heals.