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Our Lady of Lourdes
“Pray for Sinners” Our Lady of Lourdes, France
The apparition of the Blessed Virgin in Lourdes France is one of the most popularly known apparitions of Our Lady. Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was on February 11, 1858 that the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in the hollow of a massive rock in Massabielle in Lourdes. Lourdes was a small obscure village in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Our Lady appeared to Bernadette eighteen times in the same year, the last vision being on July 16, 1858. During these visions Our Lady gave messages to "Pray for sinners", "Penance, Penance, Penance" and "I am the Immaculate Conception".
The Apparitions:
Bernadette Soubirous belonged to a poor family and was a weak child both in her health as well as in her studies. She suffered from asthma all her life and was known to be poor in her studies. On February 11, 1858, when she was 14 years of age, she saw the first vision. In her words she described it as
“I heard a noise like the sound of a storm. I looked to the right, to the left, under the trees of the river, but nothing moved; I thought I was mistaken...I was frightened and stood straight up. I lost all power of speech and thought when, turning my head toward the grotto, I saw at one of the openings of the rock a rosebush, one only, moving as if it were very windy. Almost at the same time there came out of the interior of the grotto a golden coloured cloud, and soon after a Lady, young and beautiful, exceedingly beautiful, the like of whom I had never seen, came and placed herself at the entrance of the opening above the rosebush. She looked at me immediately, smiled at me and signed to me to advance, as if she had been my mother. All fear had left me but I seemed to know no longer where I was. I rubbed my eyes, I shut them, I opened them; but the Lady was still there continuing to smile at me and making me understand that I was not mistaken. Without thinking of what I was doing, I took my rosary in my hands and went on my knees. The Lady made a sign of approval with her head and herself took into her hands a rosary which hung on her right arm. When I attempted to begin the rosary and tried to lift my hand to my forehead, my arm remained paralysed, and it was only after the Lady had signed herself that I could do the same. The Lady left me to pray all alone; she passed the beads of the rosary between her fingers but she said nothing; only at the end of each decade did she say the Gloria with me. When the recitation of the rosary was finished, the Lady returned to the interior of the rock and the golden cloud disappeared with her.”
Saint Bernadette described Our Lady in the vision as “She has the appearance of a young girl of sixteen or seventeen. She is dressed in a white robe, girdled at the waist with a blue ribbon which flows down all 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; this 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 at the point where a yellow rose shines upon each of them. She holds on her right arm a rosary of white beads with a chain of gold shining like the two roses on her feet.” Except for Bernadette no one could see or hear the vision. Yet people watched her when she prayed and saw the visions.
Our Lady told Bernadette during one of the early visions that “I cannot promise to make you happy in this world, only in the next.” During the fifth vision, Our Lady taught Bernadette a prayer that she continued to recite daily, although she never revealed the words. She was also given three secrets which she never revealed. These are thought to be pertaining to her personal life. In one of the visions, Our Lady asked her to bring a blessed candle with her when she returned to the grotto. During the sixth apparition, Our Lady gave the message “Pray for sinners”.
The seventh apparition lasted long and towards the end of it Bernadette did something unusual by moving on her knees from where she was praying to beneath a wild rose bush that grew under the hollow where Our Lady stood. She kissed the ground and returned, while still on her knees, to the place she had left. Bernadette later confided that Our Lady had shared a secret with her which she could not reveal. During the eight apparition, Our Lady said “Penance!, Penance!, Penance!”
In the ninth vision Our Lady asked Bernadette “Drink from the fountain and bathe in it”. Since there was no fountain at Massabielle or any natural spring, Bernadette began to scratch the ground until a tiny spring of water appeared. She cupped her hands together and drank from it. She washed her face with the muddy water. Our Lady asked her to eat the grass around the spring which she readily did much to the amazement of the people who had gathered around to watch her during these visions! The next day the pool was overflowing!! It is the water from this very spring that has healed thousands of people from illnesses.
During the thirteenth apparition, Our Lady asked Bernadette to inform the clergy that she desired that a Chapel should be built at the spot and people should come in processions to the chapel to pray. On the insistence of people Bernadette had asked our Lady several times who she was. But there was no reply to it. During the sixteenth apparition on March 25, 1858, on the Feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette asked once more and this time Our Lady replied “I am the Immaculate Conception”.
Four years prior to this, in the year 1854, Pope Pius IX had declared the dogma of The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and there was no way that Bernadette could have known about it. During the seventeenth apparition while Bernadette was in a trance people saw the miracle of the lighted candle. Holding the candle in her left hand, she moved her right hand over the flame and remained in that position for several minutes. But she neither flinched in pain nor was she burnt! The eighteenth and last apparition took place on July 16, 1858.
Basilica and Church of the Rosary:
The Bishop of the diocese declared the faithful to be “justified in believing the reality of the apparitions”. The Basilica was built as desired by Our Lady and a statue was placed in the hollow of the rock where the apparitions took place. Another church known as the Church of the Rosary was also built. Pope Leo XIII authorised an office and a Mass in commemoration of the apparition while Pope Pius X in 1907 authorised the feast to be observed throughout the Church on February 11, on the anniversary of the first apparition.
Saint Bernadette:
Saint Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers and lived in the convent for thirteen years till her death on April 16, 1879. She suffered from tuberculosis of the bone in her right knee. Her incorrupt body is kept in a reliquary of gold and glass in the chapel of the motherhouse in Nevers, France.
Today millions of people around the world make their pilgrimage to this most holy site and bathe in the miraculous water from the spring. Thousands of miracles, small and big have been reported through the intercession of Our Lady.