Lourdes, Sanctuary of

LOURDES, Sanctuary of. - It is the most famous of the many places honored, as is believed, by apparitions of the Most Holy Mary. To date no other of these sanctuaries can boast an approval on the part of the Roman pontiffs such as that of L. In 1876 Pius IX appointed Cardinal Guibert, archbishop of Paris, as his representative for the consecration of the new temple, to which he conferred the title of basilica. Leo XIII approved a liturgical feast of the Apparition of the Immaculate (Feb. 11) for the ecclesiastical province of Auch (1891), and Pius X extended it to the entire Church of the Latin rite (1907). Pius XI raised the little Seer of L. to the honors of the altars (beatification in 1925, canonization in 1933) and wished that the Holy Year of the Redemption be most solemnly closed precisely at L. (Apr. 1935) with a triduum of uninterrupted Masses at the Grotto, sending as legate a latere his secretary of State Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (today Pius XII).

At L. Heaven has again manifested its predilection for the little ones: Bernadette Soubirous, a poor fourteen-year-old illiterate (but who appeared to be barely twelve), also very poorly instructed in the catechism, but innocent and pious, from Feb. 11 to July 16, 1858 saw - and she alone - a full 18 times, in a grotto or niche of the rock of Massabielle (Massabielle = ancient rock) to the west of L., on the left bank of the Gave, the Madonna clothed in white, with a blue sash, shining roses on her bare feet, a beautiful Rosary crown on her arm.

Only at the third apparition, on Thursday, Feb. 18, did the Madonna begin to speak, not in French, but in the genuine dialect of the country, addressing the girl with « voi ». At the sixteenth apparition (March 25), after repeated entreaties on the part of St. Bernadette to reveal her name, she pronounced the profound « self-definition », a heavenly echo of the dogma of Dec. 8, 1854: « Què soy era Immaculado Councepcion » (I am the Immaculate Conception). The Most Holy Mary is the only created being who contains within herself, in the highest perfection and purity, the concept of « immaculate conception », as God does the idea of truth and of life.

In previous apparitions the Virgin had exhorted to penance and prayer for sinners (Feb. 21) and to tell the priests that a chapel should be erected to which people might come in procession (March 2); and on Feb. 25 the Seer had dug with her own hands in the lower grotto, under the command of the Madonna, that miraculous spring which was later to heal so many sick people.

Chemically the water of the spring does not differ from that of the public fountain of L.; it is ordinary « drinking water ». Nevertheless the civil authority, which from the outset took a hostile attitude toward the apparitions, forbade for about 4 months (from June 8 to Oct. 5, 1858) « in the interest of public hygiene » the drawing of water from this new spring, which still flows always with an abundance of 85 liters per minute. In the present pools the water is ordinarily renewed only once a day, and into it are immersed many sick people, often afflicted with contagious diseases; but no one has ever contracted a new disease or a worsening there, indeed many have been healed. Sixteen of these prodigious healings, carefully examined, offered to the diocesan bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence of Tarbes (since 1912 the name of the diocese is « Tarbes and L. ») one of the reasons for being able to approve the apparitions and the public cult of « Our Lady of the Grotto of L. » or more briefly « Our Lady of L. ». This he did with the courageous pastoral letter of Jan. 18, 1862, that is, barely 4 years after the apparitions.

Other reasons for the official approval were: 1) the good effects of a spiritual order, such as conversions and a notable revival of religious practices; 2) the clearly visible changes and the ecstasies of the little Seer during the visions: « She was transformed, her features took on an unusual expression, her gaze lit up »; 3) above all the precise and always coherent testimony of a most truthful witness, incapable of lying, hence most worthy of belief, even if this witness is necessarily a single individual, because he alone has seen something extraordinary, and even if it is a matter of a 14-year-old girl (cf. Mk. 16:14).

From Apr. to Dec. 1858 many other persons at L. and in the vicinity had « visions »; but they were hallucinations or diabolical deceits, intended to discredit the true visions of St. Bernadette, and they were soon forgotten. The pastoral letter of Jan. 18, 1862 does not mention them at all.

In 1861 the place called Massabielle with its surroundings became the property of the episcopal see. In Aug. of the following year, finally, with the personal intervention of the Empress Eugénie, permission was obtained from the minister of worship to build at Massabielle a building for public worship. Immediately the architect Hippolyte Duran and the energetic parish priest Peyramale began the construction, not of a chapel, as the Madonna had asked, but of a fairly large church in Gothic style on the summit of the sanctified rock. The very difficult work lasted several years. On May 1, 1866 the first Mass was celebrated in the crypt, and on Aug. 15, 1871, the first Mass in the upper church. On July 2 and 3, 1876 the consecration of the new Sanctuary took place in the presence of 35 archbishops and bishops, 3000 priests and about 100,000 faithful.

The noted marble statue, so many times reproduced, the work of Joseph Fabisch, which pleased the Seer very little, was placed in the niche of the apparitions on Apr. 4, 1864. Fortunately the whole grotto with its delightful panoramic background has remained in its original state. God alone knows the number of prayers made there, of Masses celebrated there, of candles burned there, of interior and exterior miracles worked there over the course of the years. A faint idea of this is given by the enormous quantity of crutches and other votive offerings.

Since the upper Basilica proved ever more insufficient, toward the end of the last century, in the lower part of the ground a second church was built on a central plan with 15 altars, adorned with the mosaics of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, and solemnly consecrated, likewise with the title of basilica, on Oct. 6, 1901.

The evening or nighttime processions with torches, so dear to the pilgrims, date from Aug. 28, 1872, and the afternoon theophoric processions with the moving individual blessing of the sick and the trusting invocations, repeated by the crowd in various languages, go back to Aug. 22, 1887. In recent times, during this blessing of the sick, perhaps more miracles have occurred than during the bathing in the pools or the prayer before the Grotto.

The « BUREAU DES CONSTATATIONS MÉDICALES ». - To ascertain such miracles better, Dr. de Saint-Maclou created, in 1884, a very modest Bureau des constatations médicales (B.C.M.). His successors were Boissarie (1892-1917), Marchand, Cox, Abadie-Bayro, Vallet, Leuret. Vallet (1922-47) is the founder of the « Association médicale internationale de L. » (A.M.I.L.). Under the present president F. Leuret the whole office and the whole procedure have been reorganized, at the wish of the present bishop Msgr. P.-M. Théas.

Now, therefore, to the « Bureau médical de L. » (B.M.L.) a « Bureau d'études scientifiques » (B.E.S.) has been added. Moreover, for all of France a « Commission médicale nationale » (C.M.N.) has been constituted, to which in 1950 belonged 15 qualified physicians.

If a case of prodigious healing is presented at L. to the B.M.L., a similar declaration never follows immediately; but if the case merits it, the "miraculously" healed person is invited to present himself after a year for a further examination. Thus in 1948 the B.M.L., among many cases, had set aside 85 for a second examination. Of these, only 15 presented themselves in 1949, and 9 of them were transmitted to the C.M.N. If this national Commission too is favorable, the case goes to the competent diocesan authority; the Ordinary appoints a commission ad casum and then, if he sees fit, pronounces judgment, in conformity with the Council of Trent (sess. XXV).

For example: in Jan. 1951 a decree of Cardinal Clément Roques, Archbishop of Rennes, recognized as miraculous the healing of Jeanne Fretel, which occurred at L. on 8 Oct. 1948. Already in 1950 Prof. Leuret had reported the last words of the official record of 28 doctors: "Il n'y a pas d'explication médicale de cette guérison. Cette guérison échappe aux lois naturelles" (F. Leuret-H. Bon [v. bibl.], p. 216).

The same author devotes 18 pages to the healing of a blind and paralyzed 4-year-old boy. Concerning it, Msgr. Charles de Provenchères, Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence, declared on 31 May 1949: "Nous jugeons et déclarons que la guérison de Francis Pascal, survenue à Lourdes le 31 août 1938, est miraculeuse, et doit être attribuée à une manifestation spéciale de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie Immaculée, Mère de Dieu. Ce décret sera lu dans toutes les églises et chapelles du diocèse... On chantera un Magnificat pour remercier Notre Mère du Ciel d'un miracle qui manifeste à la fois Sa puissance et Sa tendresse maternelle" (ibid., p. 160 ff.).

During the Holy Year 1933 Maria Morbidelli, one of the Daughters of Mary of the parish of St. Camillus in Rome, for years confined to bed by pulmonary, bone and abdominal tuberculosis, suddenly felt herself perfectly healed before the Grotto of L. The enthusiasm produced by this miracle among her companions led to the foundation of the Pious international movement pro regalitate Mariae, still flourishing.

Regarding two of the most recent years, Prof. Leuret gives these impressive figures:

If one can with certainty conclude to the credibility of a revelation when it is guaranteed even by a single miracle, at L. there are so many, and still recently the current president of the Medical Bureau of L. spoke of the permanent miracle of the pools of L., "que aucun des malades qu'on y plonge ainsi, quelle que soit la gravité de leur état, n'en éprouve de mal, ni n'en ressente aggravation" (F. Leuret-H. Bon, p. 105). And the very existence of this worldwide Sanctuary, based on the visions of a fourteen-year-old girl and still full of vitality after almost a century, is already in itself a true miracle, such as no other religion can boast. For the diocese of L., v. TARBES. - See plate CX.

For the healings too there exists a vast bibliography: G. Bertin, Histoire critique des événements de L., Paris 1905; the publications of the presidents of the Medical Bureau of L.; Boisserie, Marchand, Vallet, etc.; Azevedo do Souto, L. e a medicina, Coimbra 1923; H. Monnier, Etudes médicales de quelques guérisons survenues à L., Paris 1930; N. Mittler, Des guérisons dites "miraculeuses" aux guérisseurs et à leur clients, ibid. 1940; F. Leuret-H. Bon, Les guérisons miraculeuses modernes, ibid. 1950; R. Le Bec-F. Leuret, Raisons médicales de croire aux miracles, ibid. 1950. In the opposite sense: E. Aigner, Die Wahrheit über eine Wunderheilung von L., Frankfurt a. M. 1909; id., L. im Lichte deutscher medizinischer Wissenschaft, Munich 1910; id., Ein Lourdeswunder vor Gericht, Frankfurt a. M. 1913.

Clemente M. Henze