Lourdes and St Bernadette
The Basilica and Grottes on the banks of the Gave de Pau

Seven million Christian pilgrims visit Lourdes each year in search of its healing properties and solace that it offers. Sadly there are just too many commercial aspects now to this extraordinary spectacle at the side of the Gave de Pau river. St Bernadette Soubirous could not possibly have known that her apparitions of the Virgin Mary back in 1858 would have had quite such an impact on the world's Christian community or the economy of South West France!

Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous (7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879) was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at a specific site in Lourdes.

Despite initial scepticism from the Catholic Church, these claims were eventually declared to be worthy of belief after a canonical investigation, and the apparition is known as Our Lady of Lourdes. Since her death, Bernadette's body has apparently remained internally incorrupt, but her body is not without blemish; during her third exhumation in 1925, the firm of Pierre Imans made light wax coverings for her face and her hands due to the discoloration that her skin has undergone. These masks were placed on her face and hands before she was moved to her crystal reliquary in June 1925.

On 8 December 1933, she was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church; her Feast Day is celebrated on 16 April. She is considered a Christian mystic.

A slide show of Lourdes views

01/13