Every year, 6 million pilgrims descend upon the town of Lourdes. Explore how the town's history and developments in the Catholic Church made it so popular. Lourdes Eucharistic Procession.
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Some come on pilgrimage in search of strength and guidance in times of difficulty or distress. For many sick pilgrims Lourdes gives an opportunity to bathe in the healing waters of the spring and to find peace with their prognosis rather than to seek a miraculous cure.
Lourdes: Juan's StorySince 1858, when a 14-year-old peasant named Bernadette Soubirous proclaimed she had had 18 encounters with the Virgin Mary, Lourdes has become one of the most visited sites by Catholics in the world. Lourdes has a special appeal for the fragile and the weak, including wounded military personnel.
Lourdes factsLourdes is a place of pilgrimage. 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860. 6 million pilgrims visit Lourdes each year, three times a many as in Mecca. The Catholic Church has officially recognised 67 miraculous healings, stringently examined for authenticity.
Many pilgrims are keen to take some back home, for themselves or for their loved ones. Lourdes water is free and free to access from the Sanctuary's taps and Drinking Fountains. It cannot be sold.
Lourdes is a place of the journey from sickness to health, spiritual as well as physical; a journey from darkness to light; a journey from the suffering of this earth to the peace of heaven.
The Catholic Church has formally endorsed, although not dogmatic, for sick people to bathe and visit Lourdes for healing. Since the apparitions, many people have claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it, and the Lourdes authorities provide it free of charge to any who ask for it.
With 6 million pilgrims visiting Lourdes each year, there is no doubt that it is a place of enormous attraction for those seeking enlightenment through the footsteps of St. Bernadette. The itinerary can be either 3, 4, 5 or 7 nights.
The “secret of Lourdes is the Eucharist,” the renowned shrine's chief medical officer told OSV News. “The fabulous part of Lourdes is that we are invited, convened (here) by our Blessed Mother, but we end up discovering and possibly making friends with Jesus Christ, who is very present in Lourdes,” said Dr.