Our Lady of Lourdes

The story

On 11 February 1858, Bernadette went with her sister and a friend to gather firewood by the river. At the grotto of Massabielle she saw a young Lady dressed in white, with a blue sash, a rosary on her arm and a yellow rose on each foot. Bernadette prayed the Rosary with her.

The Lady came back many times. She asked Bernadette to come to the grotto for fifteen days, called for penance and prayer for sinners, and told her to drink from a spring. Bernadette scraped at the muddy ground and water appeared; that spring still flows, and many healings have been reported there.

The parish priest demanded the Lady's name. On 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, she answered: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette did not know what the words meant, but the dogma had been defined only four years earlier. She later became a Sister of Charity of Nevers, died in 1879, and was canonized in 1933.

Key dates

1. 11 February 1858First apparition at the grotto.
2. 18 FebruaryThe Lady first speaks and asks Bernadette to come for fifteen days.
3. 24–25 February“Penance!”; the spring is uncovered.
4. 2 MarchThe request for processions and a chapel.
5. 25 March“I am the Immaculate Conception.”
6. 16 July 1858The last apparition.
7. January 1862The Bishop of Tarbes approves the apparitions.

Mary's message

• “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.”
• “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners.”
• “Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there.”
• “Go and tell the priests that people should come here in procession and that a chapel should be built here.”
• “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

The Church's judgment

After a formal inquiry, the Bishop of Tarbes declared in January 1862 that the Immaculate Virgin truly appeared to Bernadette, and permitted devotion at the grotto. In 1891 Pope Leo XIII granted a proper Office and Mass, and in 1907 St. Pius X extended the feast to the whole Church.