Spiritual Retreats: Lourdes, France

The bustling Pyrenees village of Lourdes, France, is best known for the famous Virgin Mary sightings that first occurred in 1858. Since then, Lourdes went from being a small village in the Pyrenees to a global attraction, drawing five million pilgrims annually from throughout the globe. In 1958, the first sighting starting when a fourteen-year-old peasant girl

named Bernadette Soubirous had a series of eighteen visions of the Virgin Mary, who appeared in a niche in the cave of Massabielle near Lourdes. According to accounts, when Bernadette "(lifted) her head, she saw, in the crevice of the rock, a young girl, surrounded by light, who looked at her and smiled."

She revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception and asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision. Shortly after she told the girl to drink from a fountain in the grotto, which at that time there was no fountain to be seen. However, when Bernadette dug at a spot designated by the apparition a spring began to flow. The water from this spring is still flowing and has shown remarkable healing power, though it contains no curative property that science can identify.

Today, the cave is just at the base of the basilica. Streams of believers, many in wheelchairs or even rolled in on gurneys, swarm the cave where Bernadette had her visions for a taste of the water from the spring there and with hopes for a miracle.

Of the many thousands of pilgrims who visit Lourdes every year, some claim to have been miraculously healed. It is estimated that the spring has produced 27,000 gallons of water each week since it first emerged during Bernadette's visions.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is a place of mass pilgrimage from Europe and other parts of the world yearly during March to October. Despite the skeptics, many people still hold true the healing power associated with the spring water from the grotto.

Since 1860, an estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine, making it the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. In addition, the Roman Catholic Church has officially recognized 67 miraculous healings, which are stringently examined for authenticity and authentic miracle healing with no physical or psychological basis other than the healing power of the water.

The primary spiritual destination at Lourdes is the cave where the sightings first occurred and the Basilica of the Rosary built to watch over it. It is free to enter, and it is a must-see by all visitors, believers and non-believes, since this Romanesque style cathedral is one of the largest in the world.

If you scale the massive winding ramp to the basilica, turn around and look straight ahead and you will see Lourdes' castle and Pyrenean Museum. If it weren't overshadowed by the spiritual basilica and the Virgin Mary sightings, this would surely be the city's top site. Although it dates back to Roman times, very little remains from that era with primarily a fascinating gothic fortified chateau. Inside this castle is home to a breathtaking museum detailing life in the Pyrenees.