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PAGE 2—THE BULLETIN, May 3.
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Pilgrim To Lourdes Has None
Of Hardships Of Century Ago;
Finds Town A Virtual Museum
By Paul W. McCloskey
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
At the beginning of 1858,
Lourdes was a small mountain
town in southwestern France
boasting a proud history but
showing no great promise for
the future.
Isolated in the Pyranees, it
couldn’t hold a candle to the
neighboring Gascon towns
which had become popular
health resorts. The total popula
tion of Lourdes was about 4,200
— with half its labor force
working slate and marble quar
ries which were fast being ex
hausted of. superior stone.
February 11 of that year, the
Blessed Virgin appeared for the
first time to the poor, sickly
14-year-old Bernadette Soubi-
rous. Early in the course of the
ensuing apparitions — there
were 18 in all, with the final
one that July 16 — Our Lady
asked that the people come to
the site in procession. The site
was a debris-strewn cave on the
banks of the mountain stream,
the Gave de Pau.
Thousands of persons heeded
her call that spring and in the
months following — most of
them from- the surrounding re
gion. In 1862, when Bishop Ber-
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trand-Severe Laurence of Tar-
bes declared Bernadette’s vi
sions worthy of belief, Lourdes
began attracting pilgrims from
afar. But even for pilgrims from
Paris, the trip was a major un
dertaking. The nearest railroad
station was in Tarbes, a rough
dozen miles away even by horse
and carriage.
Today things are different.
The hardships of travel, once a
major factor in penitential as
pect of the pilgrimage to
Lourdes, are no more.
This centennial year pilgrims
to Lourdes can vouch for it.
Flying from Washington to
New York on the first leg of
the trip was no new experience.
But New York to Paris was.
Traveling high above the clouds
on a TWA “Jetstream flight,”
it took less than 12 hours —
smooth flying all the way.
The trip from Paris to
Lourdes is almost as simple.
The runways at Ossun airport,
six miles from the shrine city,
have just been enlarged, and
there are frequent flights from
Paris, Brussels, Dublin, and oth
er major cities.
The French railway system
has had three trains a day from
Paris to Lourdes for years —•
the railroad having been extend
ed to Lourdes in the spring of
1866 — and this year just under
1,000 special trains have been
scheduled to take the great
throng of pilgrims. The Paris-
Lourdes run takes about 10
hours.
Thus destination Lourdes is
reached. Just what does the pil
grim see at Lourdes 100 years
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after St. Bernadettes’ “lady”
told her, “I am the Immaculate
Conception?”
Primarily, a historic spot hal
lowed by Mary. But the whole
town is a virtual museum ■—■
albeit a bustling, vibrant one
—of Our Lady, of Bernadette
and her family, and of all who
played a part in the drama sur
rounding the humble teen-ager
who went on to achieve sancti
ty in the convent in Nevers, in
central France.
The grotto of Massabielle, of
course, is the focal point of all
Lourdes. A natural cave hol
lowed out of the massive old
rock which is Massabielle by the
flood waters of the Gave over
the course of the ages, the grot
to proper meausres about
40 feet across, 12 to 15
feet high, and 26 feet
in depth. The ceiling is now
blackened by a century of smoke
from the candles placed there
by pilgrims, and the rock face
of the right side, above which
“the lady” appeared, has been
worn smooth by those who have-
kissed it. The Gave has been
pushed back perhaps 150 feet
to enable crowds to gather in
front of the cave.
The grotto today is more like
it was a century ago than it
has been at any time since 1862,
when its floor was cemented
and its entrance enclosed by an
iron grille. In preparation for
the centenary the fence has been
taken down, and the ornate
white altar has given way to a
simple slab of stone on a single
pedestal.
A white marble statue of Our
Lady stands in a hollow in the
rock, slightly above and to the
left of the grotto itself. The
work of a Lyons sculptor who
tried to follow Bernadette’s de
scription of Mary as she ap
peared on the feast of the An
nunciation, March 25, 1858, it
was dedicated six years after
the apparitions. When Berna
dette saw the statue, she re
marked: 1 ‘Oh, it’s very beauti
ful, but it isn’t Her.”
During the 10th apparition, on
February 27, the Blessed Virgin
had said to Bernadette: “Go and
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tell the priests to have a chapel
built here.” The initial skepti
cism, and even derision, of her
pastor, Father Marie Dominique
Peyramale, had given way to
belief after the Blessed Virgin
had announced “I am the Im
maculate Conception” to the girl
who had never before heard the
expression nor knew what it
meant. Bishop Laurence’s favor
able judgment on Bernadette’s
story was issued in January,
1862, and a few months later,
workmen began leveling the
top of the rock of Massabielle
for the “chapel.”
The first part of the “chapel”
—actually a crypt over which
a larger church was to be built
—was completed in 1866. The
Bishop consecrated its five al
tars on May 19, and Berna
dette, who was to leave Lourdes
to enter the convent two months
later, was part of the congre
gation.
Ten years later, the chapel it
self — the gothic basilica of the
Immaculate Conception — was
consecrated by the Cardinal-
Archbishop of Paris. In 1883,
when the basilica had proved
too small for the throngs com
ing to Lourdes, another church
was begun, in front of the bas
ilica and almost at the level of
the grotto itself. Blessed in
1889, the Byzantine-style dome
of this Church of the Rosary
comes just up to the level of
the, entrance of the basilica. At
the same time were built the
great ramps which rise armlike
to the basilica of the Immacu
late Conception, and in those
arches are a number of outdoor
altars — including one dedicat
ed to St. Bernadette herself.
Fronting the three tiers of
churches is the vast tree-lined
esplanade, where the sick and
crippled gather daily for the
procession and blessing of the
Blessed Sacrament.
Today the churches dominate
the landscape of Massabielle,
with the arches supporting the
right ramp forming the major
approach to the grotto. About
100 yeards to the right of the
grotto is the new building con
taining the small, individual
bathing pools, where able-bod
ied as well as sick immerse
themselves in the healing wat
ers.
The second biggest church in
the world is here too. But the
newly consecrated Basilica of
St. Pius X is underground —
so as not to interfere with the
harmony of the older structures.
On the hillside above the old
basilica is the famous Way of
the Cross, where pilgrims can
often be seen climbing its tor-
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tuous path barefooted.
On the other side of this hill,
about a half-mile from the grot
to, is the free City of Help
which can provide free food
and lodging for 600 poor pil
grims a day. Operated by the
national Catholic Charities or
ganization of France, its staff
is composed of volunteer laymen
and a group of Father de Fou-
cauld’s Little Sisters of Jesus.
The growing fame of its mod
ern design is fast making it
almost a separate pilgrimage
point for architects and artists
from all over the world.
Close by the new basilica is
the Museum of Our Lady, where
one can trace the religious his
tory of Lourdes and see evi
dence of the many cures that
have taken place at the shrine.
Also on the left bank of the
Gave, is the Hospital of Our
Lady of the Seven Sorrows,
where most of the very sick pil
grims are cared for by the Sis
ters and volunteer doctors . and
aides.
Crossing to the right bank of
the Gave, one finds Lourdes.
Here is the impregnable fortress
high above the town, the castle
which had made Lourdes the
most important place in Bigorre
in the ninth century, and which
is now a museum.
Less than a hundred yards,
as the crow flies, from the fort
ress is the Rue des Petits Fosses
and the hovel of an old dun
geon where St. Bernadette and
her family lived at the time
of the apparitions. This “ca-
ehot” has been restored to its
original barren state.
Slightly farther away, but to
the north of the fortress, is the
Boly mill, where the Soubirous
family had lived in better days
and where Bernadette was born
in 1844.
In this vicinity too is the La-
cade Mill, which was given "Ber
nadette’s father by Bishop Lau
rence in the 1860’s. While Ber
nadette visited this “paternal
home” often, she never lived
there.
The hospice and school of the
Sisters of Nevers, which Ber
nadette attended as a day pupil
from October, 1858, to July,
1860 — and as a boarder from
then until she left to enter the
convent six years later — is
several blocks to the northwest,
near the main road to Tarbes. It
was here that Bernadette learn
ed to read and write, and here
that she found her vocation.
The parish church of Lourdes
is in the center of the town.
Built in the latter part of the
last century, its baptismal font
is the ancient one at which the
saint was christened. In the
crypt beneath the high altar is
tomb of Bernadette’s pastor,
Abbe Peyramale.
About two miles north of
Lourdes is the hamlet of Bart-
res and the old farmstead of
the Langues family, which car
ed for Bernadette when she was
an infant, and where she lived
and tended the sheep from June
1857, until the following Janu
ary 28 — a fortnight before the
first apparition.
Besides these, there are a doz
en other old houses intimately
related to the story of Berna
dette.
But they have to be sought
out, because many of them are
hidden away in the busy life of
activity of modern Lourdes. The
city has about 600 hotels and
boarding houses, and a host of
shops offering souvenirs and re
ligious articles to suit almost
every taste.
Bernadette herself foresaw
that her native town would be
tempted to cash in on her vis
ions and on the continuing mir
acle of faith of Lourdes. In her
last hours she asked to send one
final word to her fellow Lourd-
ais: “Tell them not to become
profiteers.”
Most of the people of Lourdes
apparently try to heed her re
quest. Serving the pilgrims is
the major industry of Lourdes
today, however, and such an
industry automatically takes on
some commercial aspects.
But all commercialism stops
at the gates of the grounds of
the shrine. The mystery and
quietness of the grotto and the
all-pervading demonstration of
faith of the people are the real
symbols of Lourdes.
Absence may make the heart
grow fonder, but presents always
bring the best results.
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