Feastday: February 11
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Our Lady of Lourdes is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary invoked by Roman Catholics in honor of the Marian apparitions which are said to have taken place before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France.
Most prominently among these is the apparition of February 11, 1858, when Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl admitted to her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle, in Northern France while gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar appearances of the "lady" were reported on seventeen further occasions that year. She revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, and she asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision.
The local bishop declared the legitimacy of the apparitions and the site became a pilgrim destination for those who were devoted to Our Blesses Mother.
Bernadette Soubirous was later canonized as a Saint, and Roman Catholics and some Protestants believe her apparitions have been validated by the overwhelming popularity and testament of healings claimed to have taken place at the Lourdes water spring. It has shown remarkable healing power, though it contains no curative property that science can identify. Devout pilgrims all over the world seek cures for their ailments by bathing in the water. Three great churches rise above the grotto.
In 1862, Pope Pius IX authorized the Bishop Bertrand-Laurence to permit the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes.
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Prayer to our Lady of Lourdes
O EVER IMMACULATE VIRGIN, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comfortress of the Afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings, deign to cast upon me a look of mercy. By appearing in the grotto of Lourdes you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary whence you dispense your favours, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain O loving Mother, the grant of my request. I will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory and bless you in eternity. Amen.
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