The most famous pilgrimage site for Catholics is Lourdes in South West France, close to the border of Spain.

Pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of every major religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.

Each year millions of Catholic pilgrims journey to the grotto of Lourdes to seek healing

This is year marks the 150 th anniversary of Our Lady appearing to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes

Between February 11 th and July 16 th 1858, a poor sickly girl, Bernadette Soubirous, experienced a series of visions from the Blessed Virgin Mary at a grotto.

Those visions would forever change the girl and the lives of millions who have made pilgrimages to Lourdes for healing, hope, and inspiration.

Bernadette’s childhood days were overshadowed by a struggle to survive. She was born on January 7, 1844 and was the eldest of 6 children. Her father was a poor miller and her family lived in dire conditions. They had to accept accommodation in the cachot, a former jail. The family lived in one room barely four metres square with sparse furnishings. The damp conditions in her dwelling made Bernadette prone to asthma attacks

To earn her keep Bernadette became a shepherdess with little opportunity of formal education. She struggled to learn her catechism so that she could receive the sacraments. Bernadette was given accommodation by a foster mother to help Bernadette’s family to survive.

When she was fourteen, Bernadette returned to her own family.

On February 11th 1858, Bernadette had her first vision of 'a beautiful lady’ dressed in white saying the rosary in a grotto. She had gone to collect firewood with her sister and friend at the foot of a hill called Massabielle, meaning old rock. They stumbled across a grotto that at the time was filled with rubbish washed up from the river. As the others went on to collect firewood, she was left in the grotto.

In her own words she describes the vision that she saw: "I came back towards the grotto and started taking off my stockings. I had hardly taken off the first stocking when I heard a sound like a gust of wind. Then I turned my head towards the meadow. I saw the trees quite still: I went on taking off my stockings. I heard the same sound again. As I raised my head to look at the grotto, I saw a Lady dressed in white, wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same colour as the chain of her rosary; the beads of the rosary were white.” Bernadette describes how initially she felt a bewilderment, but after a while she felt overcome with a great peace.

The Lady asked that she return to the grotto every day for fifteen consecutive days. Bernadette returned frequently to the site, and saw a total of 18 apparitions. She prayed before the vision and often fell into an ecstasy. Bernadette remained the only one who could see the lady in the vision, who she said was “lovelier than I have ever seen.”

Local church authorities were cautious about these visions but gradually became convinced of the authenticity of the visions. Bernadette’s own testimony would not be shaken in face of bullying and threats by civic and church interviewers. As word of the visions spread, people began to flock to Lourdes.

Doubts about the Apparitions The priest Father Peyramale, and the Police Commissioner M. Dominique Jacomet, were both initially convinced they were dealing with a hoax (each later changed his mind).

"I found only a little muddy water," Bernadette said. In the next few days, however, a spring began to flow from the muddy patch first dug by Bernadette. Some devout people followed her example by drinking and washing in the water, which was soon reported to have healing properties. During one of the apparitions, Our Lady of Lourdes, told Bernadette to drink from a spring. That spring water still flows today.

Over the next weeks Bernadette continued to see Apparitions of Our Lady. Bernadette shared Our Lady’s vision and her messages which focused on the need for prayer and penance. She claimed that Our Lady wished a church to be built at the site and the spring with its waters would have healing powers.

At the thirteenth apparition on March 2, Bernadette told her family that the lady had said "Please go to the priests and tell them that a chapel is to be built here. Let processions come hither."

When Bernadette repeated Our Lady’s instructions to the Parish priest, Fr Peyramale, he wanted a sign. “First let her tell you her name, then have her make the rosebush at the Grotto flower.” Father Peyramale of Lourdes was Bernadette’s gruffest opponent at first, he later became her most ardent believer and protector.

On the 16 th appearance Bernadette tells us: “I went every day for a fortnight, and each day I asked her who she was–and this petition always made her smile. After the fortnight I asked her three times consecutively. She always smiled. At last I tried for the fourth time. She stopped smiling.

I am the Immaculate Conception “With her arms down, she raised her eyes to heaven and then, folding her hands over her breast she said, 'I am the Immaculate Conception.' Then I went back to (Fr Peyramale) to tell him that she had said she was the Immaculate Conception, and he asked was I absolutely certain. I said yes, and so as not to forget the words, I had repeated them all the way”

Bernadette held to her belief in the visions, which eventually were accepted as genuine by officials of the Catholic church. A shrine was built at the grotto in Lourdes.

Shortly after the visions had concluded, Bernadette was sponsored by the local church to attend a boarding school. From there she entered a cloistered convent. Even in the convent she had to endure suspicion from some of the nuns

Sister Marie-Bernarde Sister Marie-Bernarde (Bernadette Soubirous) in the Cloister Garden of the Convent of Nevers

Her poor health took her to an early grave. She died in 1879 and was canonized as a saint in Just before her death, she is reported as having cried out “My Jesus, how I love him. I saw Our Lady. How lovely she was. How I long to go and see her again.”

150 years later, millions of pilgrims travel to Lourdes to seek healing and renewal in spirit and body. Bernadette said, "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith."

The stone grotto is near the banks of the fast flowing Gave River and a magnificent shrine church rises above the grotto.

Massabielle Grotto Inside the grotto to the right, a rosebush planted in the rock reminds pilgrims of the sign requested by Father Peyramale. To the left of the altar is the spring Bernadette discovered on February Its waters supply the nearby drinking fountains and baths. Crutches hanging from the ceiling are proof of the many mercies granted here.

Volunteers supervise and escort sick pilgrims during the religious services around the esplanade, grotto, and baths in wheelchairs or hooded "voitures," allowing them to take part in the processions and ceremonies which are the essence of the spirituality of Lourdes.

Each season, pilgrimages organised by the Catholic Church and charities arrive in Lourdes. Numbering over sick and disabled a year, pilgrims come to seek a miracle or a cure for their illnesses.

Pilgrims from the Catholic church come to wash themselves in its waters, just as Mary told Bernadette to do.

The water is believed to have miraculous healing properties. To others, it's a powerful symbol of hope and grace. Pilgrims come from around the world to bathe in the spring water. Many take bottles of the water home.

Reports of miracles of Our Lady of Lourdes are thoroughly examined and evidence indicates that there are many cases of verifiable healings at the grotto. Since the first healing of Catherine Latapie on March 1 st 1858, as many as 2,500 unexplained healings have been recorded. 68 have been declared a scientifically inexplicable miracle by both the Lourdes Medical Bureau and the Catholic Church.

Pilgrims Light Candles at the Grotto Before the fourth Marian apparition, young Bernadette went to the Grotto carrying a lighted, blessed candle. Since then it has been a tradition for pilgrims to leave candles burning there.

Ceremony of blessing the sick at Lourdes with a priest holding a monstrance as he conducts the service at the foot of the stretchers.

Pilgrims Observe the Jubilee Year On February 11, 2008, the anniversary of the first apparition, more than 50,000 people participated in a special mass at Lourdes. Celebrations for the Jubilee year are scheduled through December. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to make a pilgrimage there in September.

St Bernadette never became proud of the special favour God gave to her. She knew that the Blessed Mother’s visits to her were God’s gift. Let us always be grateful, because everything we have is God’s gift to us. Let us also love Our Lady as Bernadette did. Mary will always bring us closer to her Son, Jesus.