Our Lady of Lourdes

Who is Mary?

Our Lady of Lourdes is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, a small town at the foot of the mountains in southern France. There, Mary called herself “the Immaculate Conception,” which means that God kept her free from original sin and from every stain of sin from the very first moment she was conceived in her mother’s womb.

The story

Bernadette was the oldest child of a very poor family. The whole family lived crowded into one dark room that had once been a jail. She was often sick, could not yet read or write, and had not yet made her First Communion.

On 11 February 1858, Bernadette went to gather firewood near the grotto of Massabielle by the river. She heard a sound like wind, looked up and saw in a hollow of the rock a very beautiful Lady, dressed in white, with a blue sash, and a yellow rose on each foot. Bernadette took out her Rosary and began to pray. The Lady also passed the beads through her fingers, but her lips did not move with the prayers.

In the later apparitions, the Lady asked her to pray for sinners, asked everyone to repent, and asked for a chapel to be built there. On 25 February, the Lady told her to dig in the ground of the grotto. A little muddy water trickled out, and slowly it became a clear spring. On 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette asked the Lady her name. The Lady answered in the local language: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette did not understand those words, but the parish priest was stunned, because four years earlier, in 1854, Pope Pius IX had declared the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

In 1862, the Bishop of the diocese declared that Mary had truly appeared to Bernadette. Bernadette later became a nun, lived humbly, and was canonized in 1933.

Why does the Church honor Mary by this title?

Lourdes is one of the largest places of pilgrimage in the world. Every year millions of people, many of them sick, come to pray, go to Confession, bathe in the spring water and join the candlelight procession. The Church has recognized a number of miraculous healings there after doctors examined them carefully. But the most precious thing at Lourdes is that many people turn back to God, find peace and have the courage to carry their own cross. That is why 11 February is also the World Day of the Sick.

A lesson for you

• Mary chose a poor girl who had little schooling. Never look down on anyone, because God loves the little ones.
• Pray the Rosary, just as Bernadette prayed it before Mary in the grotto.
• Pray for people who are sick, and check on the sick people in your family and neighborhood.