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- There is another Lourdes with a different pronunciation, see Lourdes, Brazil.
Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan) is a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées département in France. It is the largest Catholic religion pilgrimage location in France. It is situated in the southwest of the country in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, and has about 17,000 inhabitants.
History
In February 1858, it is claimed the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old girl called Bernadette Soubirous (now St. Bernadette) in the remote Grotto of Massabielle. A statue of the Madonna of Lourdes was erected at the site in 1864. Soon the previous chapel structure was replaced with a pilgrimage basilica. Bernadette Soubirous entered the Monastery of Nevers in 1866 and was canonized a Saint in 1933.
The sanctuary
Yearly from March to October the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is the place of mass pilgrimages from Europe and other parts of the world. The spring water from the grotto is believed by some to possess healing properties. An estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860 *, and the Roman Catholic Church has officially recognized 67 miracle healings. Especially impressive are candlelight and sacrament processions. Tours from all over the world are organised to visit the Sanctuary. The pilgrimage site is visited by millions of Catholics each year. Connected with this pilgrimage is often the consumption of or bathing in the so called Lourdes Water which wells out of the Grotto – the cave in which the apparitions allegedly took place in 1858.
See also
- Miracles at Lourdes
- The Virgin Mary shrines
- Marian apparitions
- Bernadette Soubirous
- Our Lady of Lourdes is a church and school outside of Stayton, Oregon named in honor of the Lourdes apparition.
- Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in St. Francis, Wisconsin.
References
- The Miracle Joint at Lourdes, "Essays" by Woolsey Teller, Copyright 1945 by The Truth Seeker Company, Inc.
- History of Our Lady of Lourdes
- Michel Foucault interrogates the problem of the vision of the Virgin at Lourdes in Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974–1975 (Picador, New York, 2003) pages 225–7.
Namesakes
- A Church and school in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada called Our Lady Of Lourdes.
- Lourdes Ciccone-Leon, the daughter of Madonna and Carlos Leon.
External links
Catholic pilgrimage sites | Roman Catholic Church in France | Blessed Virgin Mary | Marian shrines | Communes of Hautes-Pyrénées
Lorda | Lourdes | Lourdes (Francia) | Lourdes | Lourdes | Lourdes | Lourdes | Lapurdum | Lourdes | ルルド | Lorda | Lourdes | 盧爾德
"Lourdes"