Skip to content
The Miracle Record

Our Lady of Lourdes (1858)

Apparitions Image

The story in one line

the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in 1858 and identified herself at the grotto.

The basic story

In 1858, Bernadette Soubirous reported 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, France. The local bishop recognized the apparitions in 1862, and Lourdes became one of the world's most intensively investigated healing shrines.

Reported message

Bernadette said Mary asked for prayer and penance for sinners, told her to drink and wash at the spring, requested a chapel and processions, and finally identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.

Historical setting

Lourdes begins in 1858 in a small Pyrenean town, where Bernadette Soubirous's reports at the grotto quickly drew crowds, scrutiny, and later a worldwide pilgrimage culture.

18 Apparitions Lourdes, France Recognized in 1862
The grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes.
The grotto of Massabielle, where Bernadette Soubirous reported the Lourdes apparitions and where the spring emerged in 1858. Official sanctuary image

Apparition cycle

February 11 to July 16, 1858

The official Lourdes chronology preserves 18 apparitions over those five months.

Spring event

February 25, 1858

The sanctuary links the emergence of the spring directly to Bernadette’s reported instruction at the grotto.

Diocesan decree

January 18, 1862

Bishop Laurence recognized the apparitions and authorized public devotion in the official decree.

Recognized cures at Lourdes

70

The sanctuary medical pages distinguish thousands of reported cures from the smaller number formally recognized by Catholic authorities.

Primary-source file

Section titled “Primary-source file”
Official sanctuary file The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

Official overview of the shrine, apparitions, and international pilgrimage record.

lourdes-france.org Official decree The Decree

Sanctuary page preserving the 1862 decree and the basic chronology used in the diocesan judgment.

lourdes-france.org Official grotto file The Grotto of the Apparitions at Massabielle

Official page on the grotto site, the spring, and the continuing pilgrimage use of the place.

lourdes-france.org Official medical file Miraculous Healings and Recognition Process

Official sanctuary explanation of how reported cures move from medical review to recognition.

lourdes-france.org

The story

Section titled “The story”

The Lourdes story begins with a teenage girl, a grotto outside town, and a spring that people still use today. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, a poor fourteen-year-old girl from Lourdes, reported a series of 18 apparitions at the grotto of Massabielle.[1] [2]

Bernadette described a lady dressed in white with a blue sash and yellow roses on her feet.[2] During the apparitions, the lady called for prayer, penance, and the construction of a chapel.[1]

On March 25, 1858, the lady identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”[3] In the Catholic reception of the case, that phrase became decisive because Bernadette was an uneducated village girl unlikely to have invented or even fully understood a recently defined theological title on her own.

What makes Lourdes easier to follow than many apparition pages is that the story does not stop with the reported visions. The place stayed public, the spring stayed in use, the bishop issued a decree, and later doctors began reviewing healing claims connected with the shrine. So readers are not looking at one isolated visionary story. They are looking at an apparition file that turned into a long, visible public record.

Why many readers start with Lourdes

Section titled “Why many readers start with Lourdes”
  • The apparition dates are fixed and easy to follow.
  • The spring gives the story a concrete place and a continuing public practice.
  • The later Lourdes medical bureau lets readers compare the apparition story with a much larger healing record.

Publicly documented chronology

Section titled “Publicly documented chronology”

The Lourdes sequence has a clear internal development.[2]

  • February 11: the first apparition takes place at Massabielle[2]
  • February 25: Bernadette is told to dig in the ground and a spring begins to appear[2]
  • March 25: the lady identifies herself as the Immaculate Conception[3]
  • July 16: the final apparition closes the public sequence[2]

The chronology became attached to a specific place, a spring, a bishop’s inquiry, and later a permanent shrine.

The spring

Section titled “The spring”

On February 25, 1858, Bernadette said she was instructed to dig in the ground, where a spring emerged.[2] That spring still flows at the shrine and became the focal point of Lourdes’ healing claims.[1]

The official grotto description emphasizes that the spring has remained materially connected to pilgrimage ever since: pilgrims drink from it, collect its water, and take part in the water gesture at the sanctuary.[2]

This ties the apparition history directly to the later healing tradition, which is why Lourdes occupies a unique place in miracle literature.

Diocesan judgment

Section titled “Diocesan judgment”

After an investigation, Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence of Tarbes issued the decisive decree on January 18, 1862:[3]

  • he judged that Mary had truly appeared to Bernadette
  • he permitted public devotion
  • Lourdes thereafter developed into an officially recognized pilgrimage site

That decree remains the key ecclesiastical judgment behind Lourdes.

What followed from Lourdes

Section titled “What followed from Lourdes”

The public record around Lourdes is unusually extensive in three ways:

  • the apparition testimony of Bernadette was formally recognized by the local bishop[3]
  • the shrine became a continuous place of pilgrimage rather than a short-lived enthusiasm[1]
  • reported healings there were later subjected to an unusually rigorous medical review structure through the Lourdes Medical Bureau[4]

According to the sanctuary’s own medical pages, thousands of cures have been presented over time, while only 70 have been formally recognized by Catholic authorities as miraculous after the full medical and ecclesial process.[4]

So Lourdes is not documented only through Bernadette’s reports. The apparitions also led to one of the best-known long-term Catholic systems for testing healing claims.

Media and pilgrimage

Section titled “Media and pilgrimage”

The sanctuary continues to provide live access to the grotto:

References

Section titled “References”
  1. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. “The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.” Official overview of the shrine, its apparitions, and its place as a global pilgrimage site. Available at: https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/the-sanctuary-of-our-lady-of-lourdes/
  2. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. “The Decree” and “The Grotto of the Apparitions at Massabielle.” Official summary of the apparition chronology, the spring, and the site. Available at: https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/the-decree/ and https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/the-grotto-of-the-apparitions-at-massabielle/
  3. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. “The Decree.” Includes the text and context of Bishop Laurence’s 1862 recognition of the apparitions. Available at: https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/the-decree/
  4. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. “The Miracles of Lourdes,” “Recognition of a miracle,” and “Miraculous healings.” Official description of the Medical Bureau, the recognition process for cures, and the sanctuary’s list of recognized miraculous healings. Available at: https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/the-miracles-of-lourdes/, https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/recognition-miracle/, and https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/miraculous-healings/