In the south of France, at the foot of some very tall mountains, there is a small town called Lourdes. A cold river runs past a wall of grey rock with a cave underneath, and that rock has an old name: Massabielle.

Long ago, in 1858, a poor girl named Bernadette began to pray in that cave, and she said that Our Lady came to her there. The Church studied her story for four years and then said yes, it could be believed. Bernadette's own story is saved for another night. This one is about what came afterwards, and what still happens there every afternoon.

The Grotto Today

Anyone who arrives in Lourdes finds the same rock. High up, in a hollow of the stone, stands a white statue of Our Lady with a blue sash and a yellow rose on each foot. People walk in slowly, one behind another, touch the cold rock and stay quiet. Even when it is full of people, the grotto is a place of silence.

The Water Bernadette Found

On one of those days in 1858, Bernadette dug into the floor of the cave with her bare hands. Only mud came up, and the people watching thought she had made a mistake. By the next day the mud had turned into a spring of clear water, and it has never stopped: even now it gives tens of thousands of liters a day.

The water runs through pipes to bronze taps along the rock wall. Pilgrims drink, wash their faces and hands, and fill bottles to carry home. At the shrine nobody sells this water: it is free.

The Candles

Beside the grotto stands a place made only of candles, some as long as your arm, burning day and night. Each one was left by somebody who came to ask or to give thanks: a grandfather's health, peace in a family, a thank-you too big for words.

When it gets dark, the loveliest part of the day begins. Thousands of pilgrims light small candles and walk together across the great square, singing the Ave Maria in many languages. From far away it looks like a river of little lights moving slowly.

The Ones Who Arrive Sick

Every year millions travel to Lourdes — by train, by bus, by plane — and many of them are ill. Those who cannot walk are brought by volunteers called hospitaliers, who spend their holidays pushing wheelchairs, serving soup and keeping people company.

Late in the afternoon comes a procession with the Blessed Sacrament, and the sick sit in the front rows for the blessing. Some pray for healing, others for courage, and both prayers are good ones.

When the Church Says Miracle

Every now and then somebody goes home from Lourdes saying they were healed. The Church does not rush to call that a miracle: since 1883 there has been an office at Lourdes where doctors examine each of these cases.

The person must show all their medical records, from before and after. Then doctors from many countries, some Catholic and some not at all, study them together and ask whether science can explain the cure. It usually takes years. Only at the end, if nobody has found an explanation, may the bishop of the person's own town say the word miracle.

In more than a hundred and sixty years, that has happened more than seventy times. One of them was Sister Bernadette Moriau, a French nun who had not walked for many years; her cure was recognized in 2018. The others go home with the same illness and the same wheelchair, and almost all of them go home lighter, like someone who visited their mother and was made very welcome.

The Eleventh of February

On February 11 the whole Church keeps the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the World Day of the Sick as well. You do not have to cross the sea to join in: light a small candle at home and pray a Hail Mary for someone who is ill. In Lourdes that is exactly what millions of people do, one name at a time, one candle at a time.