Every year millions of people from all religions and no religion, travel to France to visit the site of Lourdes. It was there that the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared on 11th February 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous, a poor 14yr old peasant girl.
At first, the young girl and her friends kept the visions secret but news soon spread and a further seventeen were recorded. The events attracted the attention of people from afar, as well as government officials. All efforts to prevent or cast doubt on them failed. Indeed, because the apparitions were so well scrutinised and documented both then and now, the volume of concrete evidence gathered by experts from all fields make them more irrefutable.
Numerous miracles were reported at the site of the apparitions and they continue to happen today. The miracles are often associated with a spring from which water first flowed when the Blessed Virgin Mary asked Bernadette to scrape the dirt away from the ground nearby.
St Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity in Nevers and died at the young age of 35yrs. Her body was exhumed many years later and found not to have decomposed. It was placed in a new casket and displayed in the Chapel of St Bernadette.
The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is 11th February.
Our Lady of Lourdes:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the…
