Lourdes apparitions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Marian Apparitions at Lourdes were reported in 1858 by Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a 14 year old miller's daughter from the town of Lourdes in southern France. From February 11 to July 16, 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of ''a Lady''. Despite initial skepticism from the Roman Catholic Church, these claims were eventually declared to be worthy of belief after a canonical investigation, and the apparition is known as Our Lady of Lourdes.
On February 11, 1858, a 14 year old Bernadette was out gathering firewood with her sister and a friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes, when she reportedly had the first of 18 visions of what she termed ''a small young lady'' (uo petito damizelo) standing in a niche in the rock. Her sister and her friend stated that they had seen nothing. On her third visit, she said that the ''beautiful lady'' asked her to return to the grotto every day for 15 days. At first her mother had forbidden her from going, but Bernadette persuaded her mother to allow her to go. The apparition did not identify herself until the 17th vision, although the townspeople who believed she was telling the truth assumed she saw the Virgin Mary. Bernadette never claimed it to be Mary, calling what she saw simply ''Aquer˜'' (or rather ''that thing''), aquer˜ being Gascon Occitan for that. Bernadette described the lady as wearing a white veil and a blue girdle; she had a golden rose on each foot and held a rosary of pearls.
Bernadette's story caused a sensation with the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not Bernadette was telling the truth. She soon had a large number of people following her on her daily journey, some out of curiosity and others who firmly believed that they were witnessing a miracle. Lourdes became a national issue in France.
On July 16, 1858, Bernadette visited the Grotto for the last time and said ''I have never seen her so beautiful before''. On January 18, 1860, the local bishop declared: The Virgin Mary did appear indeed to Bernadette Soubirous. In 1958, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Le Pelerinage de Lourdes on the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Pope John Paul II visited Lourdes three times; Pope Benedict XVI visited Lourdes on September 15, 2008, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.
