Lourdes water, France

Lourdes water, France, 1858 – The miraculous spring bursts forth carrying with it a cure for sickness, and a message for the entire world from the Blessed Virgin herself.

In Lourdes, France, on the 11th of February, 1858, the virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous and asked her to pray the rosary. Our Lady of Lourdes first instructed Bernadette to "Go drink of the spring there, go wash in it". Shortly afterward, a spring of water came forth. Since that time, many thousands have made a pilgrimage to the spring to be cured of ills. This Lourdes holy water is highly treasured for its miraculous healing powers.

Facts about Lourdes, France
•There is a powerful healing energy present in the grotto of Lourdes and that has made it the most visited pilgrimage shrine in the Christian world. Lourdes is just 150 years old. Lourdes is the site of a Marian apparition in 1858.

•The pilgrimage season at Lourdes lasts from April through October, with the main day being August 15, the Marian Feast of Assumption.

•Four to six million pilgrims visit the shrine each year, from around the world, and it is estimated that more than 200 million pilgrims have come to Lourdes since 1860.

•Other important Marian apparitions have occurred in La Salette, France in 1846; in Pontmain, France in 1871; in Knock, Ireland in 1879; in Castelpetroso, Italy in 1888; in Fatima, Portugal in 1916-1917; in Garabandal, Spain in 1961-1965; in Zeitoun, Egypt in 1968-1968; and in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia in 1981.

History of Lourdes

•The origins of its sanctity begin with the fourteen-year old girl Bernadette Soubirous.

•Between February and July of 1858, Bernadette saw apparitions of a white-robed lady 18 times in a small grotto called Massabiele, near the town of Lourdes.

•In the apparitions Bernadette was told to instruct the village priest to build a chapel in the grotto, which many people would soon come to visit.

•On the day of the 16th apparition, March 25, the lady revealed herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary. During her ecstatic trance in the grotto, Bernadette began to dig in the earth until a small puddle of water appeared. Over the next few days the puddle enlarged into a pool and eventually became the sacred spring for which Lourdes is now so famous.

•Initially only a regional pilgrimage destination, as incidents of healing began to be reported, the spring developed an international reputation for having therapeutic powers.

•From 1864 to 1872 the site was mostly a regional pilgrimage destination attracting approximately 30,000 persons per year. Initially the shrine was not known for its curative power but after 1873, when incidents of healing at the spring began to be reported, the shrine rapidly developed a national and then international reputation for having therapeutic powers.

•The increasing number of pilgrims eventually overcrowded the original church, built above the grotto in 1876, and in 1958 an immense basilica was constructed.

Purposes of Lourdes
•Pilgrims visiting Lourdes for its healing qualities bathe in pools of water filled with cold water from Bernadette's spring.

•Reports of miracles of our Lady of Lourdes are thoroughly examined and evidence indicates that there are many cases of verifiable healing at the grotto.

"Among the sick that flock there, many come to be immersed in its waters, and some are healed. Since the first healing, of Catherine Latapie, on March 1st, 1858, as many as 2,500 unexplained healing have been recorded. But many feel that the true miracle of Lourdes is, above all, the presence and goodness of God, expressed in this "limited bodily Proof of the unlimited grace offered to all" (R. Laurentin)