Places of Worship: Lourdes Pilgrimage

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Fazal Ahmad, London, UK

Location: Lourdes, France
Belief: Christianity
Era: 1876 CE

In 1858, a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous claimed to see visions of Mary (as) in the French town of Lourdes, near the Spanish border. The visions were at a cave known as the Grotto of Massabielle. By the 10^th ‘appearance’ of Mary (as), Bernadette was being joined by hundreds of people. This came just four years after Pope Pius IX had declared the ‘Immaculate Conception’ (belief that Mary (as) was free of sin) as a dogma of the Catholic Church. However, this belief is not universally accepted by all branches of Christianity.

While having concerns initially, the Catholic Church decided to investigate and take these claims more seriously. Following much investigation, it accepted the vision of ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’, and Bernadette was retrospectively made a saint in 1933 by Pope Pius XI. By 1958, the church officially issued a communication accepting the pilgrimage of Christians to Lourdes, especially given the many stories circulating of disabilities and ailments miraculously being healed. As pilgrim numbers grew in Lourdes, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes was established. 

There are three key sites: the upper, lower and underground basilicas. The Upper Basilica is a Gothic church established in 1876 directly above the grotto where the visions had occurred. The Lower Basilica, built in a Byzantine architectural style, was completed in 1899 with a capacity of 1,500. The Basilica of St Pius X, also known as the ‘Underground Basilica’, was completed in 1958, a century after Bernadette’s visions. It has a capacity of 25,000.

For Catholic pilgrims, the most popular site is the grotto in which the visions were seen. There is a statue of Mary (as) and access to the spring of the cave in which Bernadette saw the visions. Pilgrims can walk through the cave and leave written prayers in a metal box. Bernadette said she had been directed to drink and wash from the floor of the cave, which revealed a spring. Thus, ‘Lourdes water’ is now available for pilgrims to fill bottles and take with them, and there are separate places where pilgrims can bathe in the water. Tales of healing now result in thousands of sick pilgrims visiting Lourdes, and they have their dedicated accommodation facilities nearby. Pilgrims can also light candles and place them in one of the chapels of light. 

Lourdes attracts around 25,000 pilgrims a day and an estimated 5 million every year. [1]

Interestingly, news of the visions also reached India through French missionaries, and a similar basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes was built in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India. It attracts Christian pilgrims from across India.

ENDNOTES

[1] Antony Mason, Spiritual Places – The World’s Most Sacred Sites (London, UK: Quercus Editions Ltd., 2014), 34-37.