Our Lady of Lourdes
In 1858, 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous reported 18 visions of a 'Lady' at the Massabielle grotto near Lourdes, France, who called herself 'the Immaculate Conception'.
1858 CE · 43.09, -0.05 · status: account
The account
The first came on 11 February 1858 while she gathered firewood. The local bishop approved the devotion in 1862, and Lourdes became a major pilgrimage site famous for reported cures.
The sceptical view
Because some claimed cures proved short-lived or even hoaxes, the Church set up the Lourdes Medical Bureau, at Pope Pius X's request, to examine them.
How the account grew
Bernadette Soubirous's 1858 'Lady', a small young girl in a grotto, was named 'the Immaculate Conception', approved by the bishop and then given an official statue Bernadette found unlike her vision; the spring became the centre of a cure tradition later screened by a medical bureau, and the story was retold in a best-selling novel and film.
| Year | Who | Added |
|---|---|---|
| 1858 | Bernadette Soubirous | On 11 February a 'Lady' appears in the Massabielle grotto; Bernadette describes her as a jeune fille no taller than herself; on 25 February she digs out a spring; on 25 March the Lady says 'I am the Immaculate Conception'. |
| 1858 | Mayor Anselme Lacadé; Church commission | A Toulouse professor finds the water ordinary and potable; on 17 November the Church opens an investigative commission. |
| 1862 | Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence of Tarbes | Declares that the Virgin Mary did appear to Bernadette Soubirous. |
| 1864 | Joseph-Hugues Fabisch's grotto statue | Dedicated before 20,000 pilgrims; the figure is older, taller and more conventional than Bernadette's description, and she is profoundly disappointed. (dropped: The small young girl of the first accounts.) |
| 1907 | Pope Pius X | Introduces the feast of the apparition; the Lourdes Medical Bureau, set up at his request, later recognises 70 of about 7,500 claimed cures as inexplicable. |
| 1933 | Pope Pius XI | Bernadette is canonised on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. |
| 1941 | Franz Werfel, The Song of Bernadette; film 1943 | A best-selling novel, filmed in 1943 with Jennifer Jones, fixes the story for a worldwide audience. |
| 1958 | Pope Pius XII, Le pèlerinage de Lourdes | An encyclical for the centenary of the apparitions. |
| 2008 | Pope Benedict XVI | Visits for the 150th anniversary; John Paul II had instituted the World Day of the Sick in its honour in 1992. |
Connections in the atlas
- Bernadette's 'incorrupt' body
- Bernadette’s testimony at Lourdes
- ▶ When the Virgin appeared
- The Great Mother
- Our Lady of La Salette
- Knock apparition
- Our Lady of Akita
- Our Lady of Banneux
- Our Lady of Good Help, Champion
- Fátima 'Miracle of the Sun'