CEBU, Philippines - Lourdes was a tiny town near the foot of the high Pyrenees mountains that nobody knew existed until that fateful day of February 11, 1858 when a young girl by the name of Bernadette Soubirous of Massabielle was looking for firewood and something appeared to her inside a grotto by the side of a hill. She didn’t know what the apparition was, whether it was good or evil as the apparition did not talk to her. On the second apparition, Bernadette brought holy water to sprinkle at the apparition and the Lady in the grotto merely smiled at her.
On the third apparition Bernadette asked for her name. The Lady responded, “It is not necessary.” But the lady asked her to come in the next 15 days. Then she promised Bernadette saying, “I promise you to be happy, not in this world, but in the other.” Bernadette came everyday as she was told, but the apparition did not come everyday.
When the Lady appeared again, she said: “Penance, Penance, Penance. Pray to God for the conversion of sinners.” On February 25th, the apparition pointed Bernadette to the foot of the grotto where she found a muddy spring. When Bernadette dug into it, it became clearer and pure. Then the Lady said to her, “Go drink at the fountain and wash yourself there.” All in all, there were 18 apparitions in Lourdes.
On March 4th, on her 15th apparition, the lady said to Bernadette: “Go and tell the priests to come here in procession and to build a chapel.” Then on March 25, her 16th apparition, the lady finally revealed her name, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” With these words, even the skeptical priest was convinced that Bernadette was telling the truth and that she was visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary because how could a young peasant girl know that some four years earlier in 1854, the Vatican made the Immaculate Conception a doctrine of the Catholic Church.
The last apparition was during the Feast of Our Lady of Carmel. Thus this was the beginning of the millions of pilgrimages to Lourdes, which brings some six million tourists to this place annually. The small town of Lourdes has now become one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. It is Catholicism’s most visited site next to the Vatican in Rome.
I first visited Lourdes in the mid-90s and the camera I used then was the old film type limited to 36 shots per roll. This time around, I have a digital camera and have taken more than 300 hundred photos, some of which are used for this article. Lourdes is the most handicap-friendly town that I have ever seen. You see wheelchairs everywhere as people who could hardly walk would visit Lourdes for a possible physical healing or at least a spiritual healing. There is a candlelight procession called the Marian Torchlight Procession every evening and the mysteries of the Rosary are prayed in the various languages of the world, including Tagalog and Ilonggo. Sorry, I didn’t see a Cebuano version, but I’m sure there is one.
While the Basilica of Lourdes is nestled on the side of a mountain, it is rather small. However it has a reliquary of St. Bernadette where a part of her rib is incased in a small gold casket. But the uncorrupted remains of St. Bernadette lies exposed in the chapel of the Sisters in Nevers faraway from Lourdes. It was her desire that her body remain in Nevers. While millions come to visit Lourdes every year, only a handful are granted physical healing. But people still go to visit because when you are in Lourdes, you can truly feel the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mother and for people like me, that’s all that we need to nourish our spirits.
You can take a pilgrimage to Lourdes by contacting Mrs. Aida Uy of Fortune Travel and for your flying pleasure, Korean Air flies you from Cebu to Incheon, then connect you to an Airbus 380, the worlds’ largest airliner for a direct 11-hour flight to Paris. (FREEMAN)