Shrine · Other

Our Lady of Lourdes

Lourdes, France

"Lourdes is the most famous healing shrine in the Christian world."

Highlights

1Approximately 200 million pilgrims have visited since 1858 — the world's most visited healing
2shrine 70 cures have been officially recognised by the Catholic Church as scientifically inexplicable
3miracles The Virgin identified herself as the Immaculate Conception — a theological term unknown
4to Bernadette The candlelit Torchlight Procession each evening draws thousands of pilgrims through the
5darkness The Medical Bureau at Lourdes, staffed by doctors of all faiths, rigorously examines

Getting There

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Address

1 Avenue Monseigneur Théas, 65100 Lourdes, France

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Directions

Lourdes has its own international airport (LDE) with summer pilgrimage flights from across Europe. By train: direct TGV from Paris Montparnasse (5 hours). The sanctuary is 20 minutes walk from the train station or 5 minutes by bus.

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Timings

Current time — Paris Time (CET)

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When	Hours	Note
Grotto Accessible 24 hours Basilicas	7:00 AM - 7:30 PM
Baths	9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Masses & Events

International Mass

Daily 9:30 AM (Grotto Area)

Outdoor

Mass at the Grotto Torchlight Procession

Nightly 9:00 PM (Apr-Oct)

Candlelit procession from the Rosary

Blessing of the Sick

Daily 5:00 PM

The central act of the Lourdes pilgrimage — the Eucharistic blessing over the sick

Must See

The Grotto of Massabielle

Beside the Gave River The cave where Our Lady appeared to Bernadette 18 times between February and July 1858. The spring flows behind the iron railing. Pilgrims queue to lay hands on the cool rock at the back of the grotto

the most intimate contact possible with the site of the apparitions. At night, illuminated by candles, it is achingly beautiful.

The Baths

Adjacent to the Grotto Pilgrims are immersed in cold spring water in a private cubicle, assisted by volunteers known as Brancardiers. The water is cold and the experience is brief. Many report profound peace. Over 7 million people have used the baths since they opened.

The Torchlight Marian Procession

Rosary Esplanade to the Upper Basilica Each evening during the pilgrimage season, thousands of pilgrims assemble at the Rosary Esplanade with lit candles and process to the basilicas singing the Ave Maria. The sight of thousands of candles moving through the darkness, voices rising in the night, is the defining image of Lourdes.

The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Upper basilica, above the Grotto The first basilica built at Lourdes, completed 1871. Its neo-Gothic interior contains the stained-glass panels depicting the 18 apparitions. The view from the esplanade below, with the basilica rising above the Grotto, defines the landscape of Lourdes.

The Medical Bureau

Sanctuary complex Founded in 1883, staffed by doctors of all beliefs, the Bureau examines claimed cures from Lourdes. No cure is accepted without rigorous medical evidence ruling out natural explanation. Only then does a Church commission examine whether the cure may be attributed to divine intervention. The process is among the most serious systematic investigations of miraculous claims in any religious tradition.

Intentions

Carry these intentions into the Basilica with you — pause at each sacred spot and lift them to God.

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For the sick, the dying, and those who care for them

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For those who have lost faith in God's love after suffering

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For the incurably ill, that they may find peace and meaning in their suffering

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For doctors, nurses, and all medical professionals

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For the healing of wounds — physical, emotional, and spiritual

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For the Brancardiers and volunteers who serve the sick at Lourdes

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For those who come to Lourdes and return home uncured of their illness but renewed in their spirit

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For the Church's ministry to the suffering throughout the world

Reflection

Bernadette was everything the world ignores: poor, sick, uneducated, female, a child. The Virgin appeared to her eighteen times. The Church investigated and declared it authentic. The spring that emerged at Mary's request has drawn two hundred million people. This is the logic of Lourdes: God does not choose the strong, the credentialled, or the respectable. God chooses the poor mill-girl with asthma and lets the world come to her.

Suggested Scripture — 1 Corinthians 1:27

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Read in full on Bible Gateway →

A Pilgrim's Prayer

Our Lady of Lourdes, you told Bernadette: I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the next. I come here without expecting to be cured of everything that afflicts me. I come asking only to be held — by you, and through you, by your Son. Let the cold water of this spring wash through me. Let me go home different. Amen.

Lourdes is the most famous healing shrine in the Christian world. Since 1858, when the Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto on the banks of the Gave River, approximately 200 million pilgrims have visited. The spring that emerged at Our Lady’s instruction during the ninth apparition has been the source of thousands of reported cures, 70 of which have been recognised by the Church as scientifically inexplicable miracles.

St Bernadette

Bernadette was a poor, asthmatic, uneducated child from a family living in poverty in a former jail cell. The apparition identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception” — a dogma defined just four years earlier, which Bernadette could not have known. The Church undertook a rigorous investigation and declared the apparitions authentic in 1862. Bernadette entered religious life, was canonised in 1933, and her incorrupt body lies at Nevers.

Pilgrimage

The sanctuary complex that has grown around the grotto includes several basilicas, the iconic candlelit processions, the baths where the sick are immersed in spring water, and an elaborate infrastructure to welcome the ill and disabled. The Torchlight Marian Procession each evening, with thousands of pilgrims moving through the darkness carrying candles, is one of the most moving spectacles in modern Catholic life.