We left our Toulouse hotel yesterday morning and drove 2-1/2 hours to the town of Lourdes, made famous by the apparitions of Mary, mother of Jesus, seen by a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, also known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. According to Wikipedia, “she was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing Marian apparitions of a “young lady” who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto at Massabielle. These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the woman who appeared to her identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception.”

Here is an excellent article about Lourdes, a place where six million people visit every year.

After a quick lunch, we embarked on a three hour walking tour of the town, with our local guide, Ultpiano.

[Boy, I’m certainly getting my steps in on this trip! Yesterday I logged 12,106 steps; the day before it was 10,373!]

Here are some of the pictures I took on the walk. In the first photo, you can see our guide pointing to the image of a shell, which is the symbol for the Way of St. James. Then you’ll see images of Saint Bernadette, who was the first saint in which there are photographs rather than just paintings. We visited her first family home, “Le cachot,” which was really a jail—her father, a miller, was accused of stealing flour. Look at her small wooden shoes! She unfortunately died young, in her 30s, and was plagued with asthma her whole life.

We finally arrived at the underground basilica, the largest of its kind in the world which seats 25,000 people! As soon as the door was opened, I commented to my companions, “I hear music!” It was the choir practicing for Sunday’s mass and they truly sounded like angels! I was surprised to hear such fantastic, reverberant acoustics in a room shaped like this! My sister Margo identified the piece as something by Mendelssohn but I was not familiar with it (“See what love hath the Father”).

There was even a pipe organ here, which apparently was built in 1958. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any information about the builder.

The most memorable part of the day, however, was the Marian torchlight procession which takes place every night from April to the end of October. (Whew, we just made it!) I tried to find out how many people nightly make this procession, but couldn’t find a number—I would take a wild guess and say there were about 10,000 people here tonight.

The prayers and the rosary were said and music was sung throughout the procession, which lasted a little more than an hour. There were soooo many people (!) and it seemed like it took forever to walk around the basilica. Several times the crowd raised their candles and torches high (“Ave, ave, ave Maria… ave, ave, ave Maria”). At one point, we walked in figure eights, back and forth, winding our way back into the large square. Many languages were spoken, Spanish and French, of course, but also German, Italian, Russian, and several others I couldn’t identify.

Here’s what I found on the internet: If you come to Lourdes, you have to do the Marian torchlight procession. Ever since the apparitions, crowds have flocked to the Grotto with candles, responding to the Virgin Mary’s invitation to “come here in procession”. During this procession, there is a fervour, an impetus which arises from this ocean of light, from the presence of people from all over the world, who pray in different languages ​​to Mary. You have to experience it for yourself. The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes is carried in procession through the Sanctuary: each person implores her to watch over their family and loved ones.

To say that this was an unforgettable experience is an understatement. Our tour director, Manuel, told us that for him a miracle happened. His mother-in-law was quite ill, but he was away and couldn’t be with her. He prayed here at Lourdes that he would get back home before she passed. He prayed and prayed … and he was finally able to see her alive. She died the night after he had returned.

There have been only 70 officially recognized miracles which have occurred at Lourdes, but millions others have experienced miracles in their own way.