148th anniversary of the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes Reenactment of apparition done at Basilica

Hundreds of devotees of the Our Lady of Lourdes yesterday witnessed the reenactment of the descent of the Blessed Virgin Mary from heaven and her appearance to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubiroux done at the Basilica del Santo Niño before her feast day tomorrow, February 11. A devotee himself, former House representative and University of the Visayas vice president Jose "Dodong" Gullas led the annual celebration of bringing the icon of the Our Lady of Lourdes down from her shrine.

Gullas narrated that it was his maternal grandparents Don Juan Rivera and Andrea who donated the icon to the church and who started the practice of taking down the icon from its shrine on October 1935 to stand for humility. It then became a yearly ritual of the Cofradia de la Virgen de Lourdes, which was organized also at the Basilica at the time.

Some of the Augustinian priests then were initially against the taking down of the icon of Our Lady of Lourdes from the shrine for fear that it might fall from the hands of devotees.

But Rivera assured the Augustinian priests that the ceremony will be handled with utmost care.

Later, his mother Josefina "Inday Pining" Gullas continued the practice until she passed away in 1984. When his mother died, Gullas took over and vowed to continue the practice.

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes started on February 11, 1858 in Lourdes, France when she appeared for the first time to would-be saint, Bernadette Soubiroux. The Lady asked for a chapel to be built at the site of her apparition while revealing herself to the young girl that she is "the Immaculate Conception."

The Lady of Lourdes appeared to Bernadette 18 times, the last time of which was on July 16, 1858.

Her feast became a part of the church liturgy after Pope Leo XIII declared a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition.

In 1907, Pope Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Catholic church, which observed it every February 11.

On March 25, 1879, the Lady of Lourdes icon, sculpted by Antonio Busutiil, was placed in a niche beneath the promontory, a place that Bishop Pietro Pace later blessed on June 3, 1888. The foundation stone was laid on June 10, 1888, and the place was blessed and opened to the public on August 27, 1893, and later consecrated on February 17, 1949.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes has for years been the sanctuary of prayer and meditation by millions of devotees and pilgrims from around the world. - Garry B. Lao with notes from the book "Lourdes"