The baths at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France have fully reopened this week for the first time in four years for France’s national pilgrimage for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Source: CNA.
More than 30,000 pilgrims are expected in Lourdes for the August 15 feast day, according to the news station Europe 1. The weeklong celebration will culminate in a Mass and candlelight rosary procession with thousands of sick in wheelchairs leading the way.
The immersion pools at Lourdes have been closed since 2020 due first to the pandemic and later to renovation work. During the closure, pilgrims were invited to participate in a “water gesture” by washing their face, hands, and forearms with holy water from the miraculous spring.
The return of the possibility of full immersion in the sacred water has been welcomed by the thousands of sick, disabled, and volunteers taking part in France’s 151st national pilgrimage for the Assumption solemnity.
“It is a return to normal,” Fr Sébastien Anthony, the president of the pilgrimage, told a French radio station.
“Our teams have mobilised to make this possible so that we can welcome the sick and pilgrims with dignity,” he added.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most visited religious shrines in the world, attracting more than 5 million visitors each year. It marks the site where a young St. Bernadette Soubirous witnessed 18 Marian apparitions, beginning on February 11, 1858.
During the ninth apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary told Bernadette: “Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there.” The miraculous spring that appeared after Bernadette humbly dug in the dirt with her hands resulted in the healing of a woman with a paralysed hand in the presence of more than 1500 people.
Since then, doctors on the International Medical Committee of Lourdes have certified 70 medical cures from the spring as being “unexplained on the basis of current medical knowledge.”
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Lourdes baths have fully reopened as 30,000 expected for Assumption pilgrimage (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
