The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world with millions drawn to the scene where Mary appeared to a poor, 14 year-old peasant girl named Bernadette Soubiroux.
The first of what would be 18 apparitions occurred on February 11, 1858 in the hollow of a rocky ravine named Massabielle. Bernadette described Our Lady as being clothed in white with a blue ribbon sash and a Rosary hanging from her right arm. The two would pray the rosary together during the apparitions, and Mary once asked her to dig at a place on the ground from which a spring of miraculous water emerged and remains until this day. Bernadette often fell into ecstacy during the apparitions, some of which were witnessed by hundreds although no one else ever saw or heard the apparition.
Local Church authorities were doubtful of the apparitions and instructed Bernadette to ask the apparition for a name. Mary revealed herself as “The Immaculate Conception.” Although Bernadette was completely unfamiliar with the term, the priests knew that the Pope had just declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854.
Four years after the visions began, the bishop announced that the faithful were “justified in believing the reality of the apparition” of Our Lady. A basilica was eventually built on the spot. Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church; it is now observed on February 11.
The apparitions at Lourdes are rich in meaning. At the time, the grotto where Mary appeared was known as the “pig’s shelter” because that was where local swine took shelter. It was here that Mary chose to appear in her spotless white dress, a sign of total purity, a symbol of God’s willingness to come to us wherever we are, even in the midst of our poverty and misery. Her appearance can be seen as a symbol of the wealth and goodness of God who comes to meet the poverty of the human person, to search out that which was lost.
For Reflection:
On the Immaculate Conception, Stanislaus M. Hogan in his work, Mother of Divine Grace, writes. “[Mary’s] Immaculate Conception had rendered her free in the most perfect manner, by exempting her from sin, from ignorance, from error, and concupiscence, those forces which are so destructive of human liberty.” In what way(s) do sin, ignorance, error, and concupiscence compromise our liberty? From Sacred Scripture and through her various apparitions, how do we see Mary’s freedom and liberty being expressed? In light of these instances, in what ways does Mary invite her children to experience her own singularly privileged freedom? In Lourdes?
