LOURDES - FRANCE - A WELL KNOWN PILGRIMAGE PLACE

Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. Famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes that are reported to have occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous. At that time, the most prominent feature of the town was the fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at it's center. Following the reports that Our Lady of Lourdes had appeared to Bernadette on a total of eighteen occasions, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and of alleged miraculous healings.

Today Lourdes is the largest pilgrimage site in France. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes (pictured on left) is a place of mass pilgrimage from Europe and around the world. The spring water from the grotto (right) is believed to possess healing properties. The Roman Catholic Church has officially recognized 67 miraculous healings which were stringently examined for authenticity.

St. Bertand de Comminges, a minuscule ancient village in the upper Garonne valley in the Pyrenees (founded in 72 BC) was apparently the place to which Herod had been exiled.

Dr. Wayne Dyer