Lourdes 1858: the apparitions of the Immaculate Conception

On 11 February 1858 a fourteen-year-old girl went out to gather wood with her sister Marie and the neighbours’ daughter Jeanne Abadie. At the grotto of Massabielle, on the bank of the river Gave, Bernadette Soubirous saw for the first time a lady dressed in white. Up to 16 July the lady appeared to her eighteen times, and on the feast of the Annunciation she gave her name: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” This guide tells the story of the apparitions of Lourdes from sources dating from before the Council, and explains their message, their recognition by the Church and the feast on 11 February.

What happened at Lourdes in 1858?

At Lourdes the Most Blessed Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to the girl Bernadette Soubirous between 11 February and 16 July 1858. The apparitions took place in the grotto of Massabielle. Only Bernadette saw and heard the apparition, even when many people were standing with her.

Henri Lasserre described the apparition as Bernadette recounted it. In the German edition of 1872 the lady’s garments are said to have been “white as the spotless snow of the mountains” (translated from the German). Around her waist lay “a sky-blue sash”, a white veil fell from her head, and on each of her feet bloomed a golden rose. In her joined hands she held a rosary of milk-white beads on a golden chain. The beads slipped through her fingers, but her lips did not move.

This is how Lourdes statues show the Mother of God: dressed in white, with a blue sash, joined hands and the rosary.

Who was St Bernadette Soubirous?

Bernadette Soubirous was the eldest daughter of the impoverished miller François Soubirous and his wife Louise. At the time of the apparitions she was fourteen years old, frail and unable to read or write. Later she entered a convent at Nevers and lived there as Sister Marie-Bernard.

Lasserre describes the family as so poor that on 11 February 1858 they had no wood for cooking. Bernadette suffered from asthma and looked younger than she was. In July 1866 she entered the convent of Saint-Gildard of the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction at Nevers, and received the habit on 29 July. She died in Easter Week 1879.

Pope Pius XI canonised her in St Peter’s on 8 December 1933, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. He set her feast on the day of her death, 16 April. Nevers keeps her reliquary shrine, and since then many pilgrims have come there too.

What does “I am the Immaculate Conception” mean?

With the words “I am the Immaculate Conception” the apparition in the grotto gave her name on 25 March 1858, the feast of the Annunciation. She thereby described herself as the Virgin who was conceived without original sin. Pope Pius IX had proclaimed this teaching as a dogma four years earlier.

Bernadette had asked the lady her name several times. On that morning, according to Lasserre, the apparition opened her joined hands, let the rosary slip onto her right arm, spread out her arms, raised them towards heaven and spoke the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette did not know the expression and repeated it on her way to the parish priest so as not to forget it.

In 1957, for the hundredth anniversary, Pope Pius XII wrote that the infallible teaching of the Pope had needed no confirmation from heaven. Yet with what gratitude, he said, the faithful had received this answer “from heaven” from Bernadette’s lips. What the dogma teaches is explained in our guide to the Immaculate Conception.

What is the message of Lourdes?

The message of Lourdes is a call to penance and to prayer for sinners. Our Lady called out “Penance” three times, asked for a chapel and for processions to the grotto, and had Bernadette uncover a spring. Bernadette herself prayed the Rosary before the grotto.

Lasserre relates how Bernadette moved on her knees some fifteen metres into the interior of the grotto, and how the bystanders heard her call out the word “Penance” clearly three times. At a later apparition the lady said: “and now drink and wash at the spring” (translated from the German). No water was to be seen at the spot. Bernadette dug in the ground with her hands, and over the following days the mud became the spring of Lourdes.

In 1957 Pius XII summed it up: the Immaculate had called three times for penance and had asked for prayer for sinners. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 does not attribute the healings of the sick at the grotto to the water, which according to chemical analysis has no natural healing properties, but to the intervention of God. If you would like to pray the Rosary as Bernadette did, you will find all the prayers in our prayer companion to the Rosary.

Did the Church recognise the apparitions of Lourdes?

The Church recognised the apparitions of Lourdes. On 18 January 1862, after more than three years of investigation by an episcopal commission, Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence of Tarbes declared that the Mother of God had truly appeared to Bernadette. Since then the popes have honoured the sanctuary in many ways.

“The Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, truly appeared on 11 February 1858 and on the following days, eighteen times in all, to the child Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle near the town of Lourdes; this apparition bears every mark of truth, and the faithful are justified in believing it.”

Pastoral letter of the Bishop of Tarbes of 18 January 1862, art. 1, after H. Lasserre: Unsere liebe Frau von Lourdes, German edition 1872; translated from the German

At the same time the bishop submitted his judgement to that of the Pope. Pius IX had the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes crowned. In 1892 Leo XIII granted a proper Office and a proper Mass for the feast of the Apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the feast to the whole Church. Pius XI had the Jubilee of the Redemption solemnly closed at the grotto of Massabielle.

When does the Church celebrate Our Lady of Lourdes?

The Church celebrates Our Lady of Lourdes on 11 February, the day of the first apparition. In the 1962 calendar the feast is called In Apparitione Beatae Mariae Virginis Immaculatae, the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate, a feast of the third class. Its Mass joins the Immaculate Conception with the apparition.

For its lesson the Mass of 11 February takes the vision of the Apocalypse: “a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Apoc 12:1, Douay-Rheims). In the Gradual, the chant after the Epistle, the bridegroom of the Canticle calls: “My dove in the clefts of the rock”, an image of the grotto.

Deus, qui per immaculatam Virginis Conceptionem dignum Filio tuo habitaculum praeparasti: supplices a te quaesumus; ut, eiusdem Virginis Apparitionem celebrantes, salutem mentis et corporis consequamur. Per eundem Dominum.

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling for Thy Son: we humbly beseech Thee that we, who celebrate the Apparition of the same Virgin, may obtain health of soul and body. Through the same Lord.

Collect of 11 February, Missale Romanum 1962; our translation from the Latin

How did the pilgrimage to Lourdes begin?

The pilgrimage to Lourdes began as early as 1858, when people came to the grotto in crowds. After the recognition in 1862 a basilica was built above the rock. From 1873 the great French national pilgrimages came, and pilgrims from many countries followed.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 counts a total of 5,297 registered pilgrim trains with 4,919,000 pilgrims up to the end of 1908. In 1883 the foundation stone of a second church below the basilica was laid; it was consecrated in 1901 as the Rosary Church. At the sanctuary the medical office, the Bureau des Constatations Médicales, examines reported cures; according to the same source it is open to all doctors, whatever their origin or faith.

If you cannot make the pilgrimage to Lourdes yourself, you can pray at home before a statue of the Mother of God and unite yourself in prayer with the pilgrims at the grotto of Massabielle.

Mentioned in this article Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes Our Lady of Lourdes, 32 cm high, made of resin and hand-painted in colour. View the statue

Frequently asked questions about Lourdes