Lourdes

#MOB R15 Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic title of the Mary, mother of Jesus, venerated in honour of the Marian apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The first apparition of 11 February 1858, of which Bernadette Soubirous (age 14) told her mother that a “Lady” spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle (1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from the town) while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.Similar apparitions of the “Lady” were reported on 18 occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place. On 18 January 1862, the local Bishop of Tarbes Bertrand-Sévère Laurence endorsed the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes.

On 1 February 1876, Pope Pius IX officially granted a pontifical decree of canonical coronation to the image as Notre-Dame-du-Sainte-Rosaire. The coronation was performed by Cardinal Pier Francesco Meglia at the courtyard of what is now part of the Rosary Basilica on 3 July 1876.

The image of Our Lady of Lourdes has been widely copied and reproduced in shrines and homes, often in garden landscapes. Soubirous was later canonized as a Catholic saint by Pope Pius XI in 1933.

Marian devotion has since steadiliy increased as ecclesiastical investigations sanctioned her visions. In later years, a large church was built at the site that has since become a major site of religious pilgrimage.