"I am the Immaculate Conception." - The Blessed Virgin Mary's words to a 14-year-old peasant
girl Bernadette Soubiroux Lourdes, France, 1858
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Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes - February 11
In Lourdes, France, a tiny village in the south of France, a beautiful lady appeared to a 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubiroux on February 11, 1858. Our Lady of Lourdes brought a message of conversion and encouraged a great love for the church, prayer and service to the sick and poor.
Her Shrine in southern France is visited by millions of pilgrims who come to pay tribute to her and for healing from the spring waters that appeared during the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette. There are thousands of documented cures that have been obtained at Lourdes for diseases and illnesses such as tuberculosis, tumors, sores, cancers, deafness, blindness, and more.
A total of 18 apparitions occurred from February 11 through July 16, 1858. Bernadette described the following to Father Gondrand of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate: "I saw a lady dressed in white. She was wearing a white dress with a blue sash and had a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her rosary."
In Signs and Symbols in Christian Art by Rev. George Ferguson, he said, "Traditionally, among the ancient Romans, the rose was the symbol of victory, pride, and triumphant love." And the feet are a symbol of "humility and willing servitude," since they touch the dust of the earth. The color of golden yellow is a divine color and the number two represents the dual nature of Christ. The appearance of two yellow roses on Our Lady's feet symbolizes her humbleness as the handmaid of the Lord and her sacred role as the one who illuminates the holy path that leads to Christ.
During one of the apparitions, Our Lady told Bernadette, "I am the Immaculate Conception." This was a term unfamiliar to Bernadette. Pope Pius IX had declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in 1854.
Although at first the clergy were unbelieving, within four years in 1862, the bishop of the diocese declared the faithful "justified in believing the reality of the apparition" of Our Lady. A basilica was built upon the rock of Massabielle by M. Peyramale, the parish priest.
In 1873, the great "national" French pilgrimages were inaugurated. Three years later the basilica was consecrated and the statue of Our Lady solemnly crowned. And in 1883, a church was built at the foot of the basilica and was consecrated in 1901 as the Church of the Rosary.
Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pope Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church. It is observed on February 11.
Excerpts from the Homily of Pope John Paul II during his Apostolic Pilgrimage to Lourdes, August 15, 2004:
"Mary's Immaculate Conception is the sign of the gracious love of the Father, the perfect expression of the redemption accomplished by the Son and the beginning of a life completely open to the working of the Spirit...By her words and her silence the Virgin Mary stands before us as a model for our pilgrim way. It is not an easy way: as a result of the fall of our first parents, humanity is marked by the wounds of sin, whose consequences continue to be felt also among the redeemed. But evil and death will not have the last word! Mary confirms this by her whole life, for she is a living witness of the victory of Christ, our Passover. The faithful have understood this. That is why they throng to this grotto in order to hear the maternal counsels of the Blessed Virgin. In her they acknowledge 'the woman clothed in the sun' (Rev 12:1), the Queen resplendent before the throne of God (cf. Responsorial Psalm), ever interceding on their behalf.
I appeal urgently to all of you, dear brothers and sisters, to do everything in your power to ensure that life, each and every life, will be respected from conception to its natural end. Life is a sacred gift, and no one can presume to be its master...Walk beside Mary as you journey towards the complete fulfillment of your humanity!"
Immaculate Mary - Lourdes Hymn
Immaculate Mary, thy praises we sing;
Who reigns now in splendor with Jesus our King:
Ave, ave, ava Maria.
Ave, ave Maria.
In heaven the blessed thy glory proclaim;
On earth, we, thy children, invoke your sweet name.
Ave, ave, ave Maria.
Ave, ave Maria.
Thy name is our power, thy virtues our light,
Thy love is our comfort, thy pleading our might.
Ave, ave, ave Maria.
Ave, ave Maria.
We pray for our mother, the Church upon earth;
And bless, Holy Mary, the land of our birth.
Ave, ave, ave Maria.
Ave, ave Maria.
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