(Under the title of the Immaculate Conception)
Historical Setting
In the year of Our Lord 1858, in the small Pyrenean town of Lourdes in southern France, Heaven deigned to visit the earth in a most tender and maternal manner. The apparitions occurred scarcely four years after Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), affirming that the Blessed Virgin Mary, by a singular grace of God and in view of the merits of Christ, was preserved free from all stain of original sin from the first moment of her conception.
It pleased Divine Providence to confirm this dogma through the lips of the Virgin herself.
The Seer: Saint Bernadette Soubirous
Marie-Bernarde (Bernadette) Soubirous was born on January 7, 1844, into a poor but devout Catholic family. Frail in health and lacking formal education, she possessed a simple, transparent soul marked by humility and obedience. She did not yet know her catechism thoroughly and was preparing for First Holy Communion at the time of the apparitions.
Her poverty, simplicity, and childlike faith made her a fitting instrument of Heaven.
The Apparitions at Massabielle
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette in a grotto called Massabielle near the River Gave.
First Apparition – February 11, 1858
While gathering firewood with her sister and a friend, Bernadette heard a rushing sound like wind. In a niche of the rocky grotto, she beheld a Lady clothed in white, wearing a blue sash, with a golden rose upon each foot, and holding a rosary of white beads.
The Lady silently prayed the Rosary with her.
Bernadette instinctively made the Sign of the Cross—at first unable to do so until the Lady herself did it reverently. This gesture would mark the profoundly Catholic character of the apparitions.
The Call to Penance
In subsequent apparitions, the Lady spoke:
“Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners.”
She urged prayer and conversion, echoing the Gospel call of Our Lord. Bernadette was asked to kiss the ground in reparation for sinners and to perform acts of humility and mortification.
These acts scandalized onlookers but revealed the profound redemptive character of suffering united to Christ.
The Miraculous Spring
On February 25, the Lady instructed Bernadette:
“Go to drink at the spring and wash yourself in it.”
At first, no spring was visible. Bernadette dug in the muddy soil, and soon a small trickle appeared, which grew into a flowing spring. This water continues to flow to this day and has been the instrument of innumerable miraculous healings—carefully examined and verified by medical authorities.
The spring symbolizes the living waters of grace flowing from Christ through His Immaculate Mother.
The Revelation of Her Name
On March 25, 1858—the Feast of the Annunciation—the Lady at last revealed her name in the local dialect:
“Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou.”
(“I am the Immaculate Conception.”)
Bernadette, who did not understand the theological significance of the phrase, faithfully repeated it to her parish priest. This unexpected declaration confirmed the dogma proclaimed only four years prior.
The Virgin did not say merely that she was conceived without sin—she identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, revealing the fullness of her identity in God’s redemptive plan.
Ecclesiastical Recognition
After thorough investigation, the Bishop of Tarbes declared the apparitions worthy of belief in 1862. Lourdes soon became one of the greatest Marian pilgrimage sites in Christendom.
The Basilica now stands above the grotto, and countless pilgrims come seeking physical and spiritual healing.
Saint Bernadette’s Hidden Life
Bernadette entered the Sisters of Charity at Nevers in 1866. There she lived in obscurity, suffering illness and misunderstanding with patience and humility.
She died on April 16, 1879, at age 35. Her body remains incorrupt, a silent testimony to sanctity.
Canonized in 1933, she is a model of simplicity, obedience, and fidelity.
Spiritual Significance in Traditional Catholic Devotion
Lourdes teaches:
- The necessity of penance and reparation for sin
- The power of the Rosary
- Confidence in Mary’s maternal intercession
- The reality of grace and miraculous intervention
- The dogma of the Immaculate Conception as central to salvation history
In an age already marked by growing secularism and rationalism, Heaven reminded the faithful that God intervenes, that miracles are real, and that Mary remains actively concerned for souls.
A Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes
O Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes,
who didst appear in the grotto of Massabielle
to call sinners to penance and prayer,
obtain for us purity of heart,
confidence in suffering,
and fidelity to the Holy Rosary.
Grant us healing—if it be God’s will—
but above all the healing of our souls,
that we may attain eternal life
with thee and thy Divine Son.
Amen.