Lourdes
Stored: Lourdes
| Populated Place: Lourdes | |
| 43.0952, -0.0457 | |
| Status (Church Vitality): | Active |
| Historic: | Yes |
| Type: | Town |
| Country: | France |
| Subdivision: | Occitanie |
| Founded: | |
| Population: | 13552 |
| Catholic Population: | |
| Catholic Percentage: | 85% |
| Official Languages: | |
| Catholicism Introduced: | |
| Catholicism Status: | |
| Parishes: | 10 |
| Notable Catholic Sites: | Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes (Grotto of Massabielle; Basilica of the Immaculate Conception; Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary; Basilica of St. Pius X) |
| Patron Saint: | Saint Bernadette Soubirous |
| Website: | https://www.lourdes.fr |
Lourdes (Occitan: Lorda) is a small market town in the Hautes-Pyrénées department of southwestern France, nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees along the Gave de Pau river. With a resident population of 13,552 (INSEE 2022, effective 2025), it swells each year with nearly six million pilgrims who come to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, the world’s most visited Catholic shrine after Rome. Here, in 1858, the Immaculate Conception appeared eighteen times to fourteen-year-old Saint Bernadette Soubirous, commanding a chapel and revealing a miraculous spring whose waters have been the instrument of 70 Church-recognized healings.[1]
History
Early Settlement
Celtic tribes first inhabited the site, drawn to its thermal springs. Roman legions fortified the area, and by the 5th century the Diocese of Tarbes (ancestor of today’s Diocese of Tarbes et Lourdes) was already established. Medieval pilgrims paused at Lourdes en route to Santiago de Compostela, honouring Our Lady at the parish church of the Sacred Heart.
Catholic Evangelization
On 11 February 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, gathering firewood with her sister and a friend, beheld “a small young lady” in white standing in the niche of Massabielle grotto. Over eighteen apparitions (11 Feb–16 Jul), the Lady taught Bernadette to pray the Rosary, urged penance, and on 25 March declared in Gascon, “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou”—“I am the Immaculate Conception,” confirming Bl. Pius IX’s 1854 dogma. On the ninth apparition (25 Feb) she commanded, “Go drink at the spring and wash yourself there.” Bernadette dug in the mud; within hours a torrent of clear water gushed forth, still flowing at 120,000 litres daily.
Local authorities tried to fence the grotto; Emperor Napoleon III intervened in October 1858, ordering it reopened. Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence of Tarbes launched a four-year inquiry, declaring the apparitions “supernatural and worthy of belief” on 18 January 1862.[2]
Modern Faith Life
Construction of the first basilica (now the Upper Basilica of the Immaculate Conception) began in 1862; Pope Pius IX crowned its statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1876. The Lower Basilica of the Rosary (1889) and the underground Basilica of St Pius X (1958, seating 25,000) followed. The diocese was renamed Tarbes et Lourdes in 1912. In 2024–2025 the diocese reorganised its 525 historic parishes into ten pastoral zones, with Lourdes forming one vibrant hub.[3] The annual pilgrimage season (Easter–October) sees torchlight processions of 30,000 nightly; the sick are carried in the iconic blue “voitures” to the baths and the Grotto.
Geography and demographics
Lourdes lies at Lua error in Module:Coordinates at line 1: attempt to index global 'coordinates' (a nil value). in the narrow valley of the Gave de Pau, covering 37 square kilometres of mountain meadows and forested slopes. The Pyrenees rise dramatically to the south, their snowmelt feeding the miraculous spring.
As of 1 January 2025, the municipal population is 13,552.[4] Diocesan records estimate 85% baptised Catholic, though regular Mass attendance hovers near 15%. French is the official language; Occitan (Gascon) survives in liturgy and street signs.
The Sanctuary complex—three superimposed basilicas, the Grotto, 22 bath-houses, and the Way of the Cross—dominates the town’s spiritual geography. The spring water, tested daily, is potable and free. The diocese maintains 17 Catholic primary schools and the Hospitalité Notre-Dame de Lourdes, whose 10,000 volunteers annually serve 80,000 assisted pilgrims.
Government and culture
Lourdes is governed by a mayor and 33-member council. Civic life revolves around the sanctuary calendar: the 11 February Opening of the Jubilee Year, the 16 July Closing of the Apparition Octave, and the 15 August Assumption torchlight procession drawing 50,000. The town’s coat of arms bears the Virgin’s words in Gascon beneath a Marian crown.
Architectural jewels include the fortified medieval castle (now the Pyrenean Museum) overlooking the sanctuaries, and the neo-Byzantine mosaics of the Rosary Basilica depicting the 15 traditional mysteries. The Lourdes Cancer Espérance movement, founded here in 1985, hosts an annual September pilgrimage for 6,000 patients and families.
Notable Catholic figures
- Saint Bernadette Soubirous (1844–1879) – visionary; her incorrupt body rests in Nevers; canonised 1933; patroness of Lourdes and the sick.
- Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence (1790–1870) – conducted the 1858–1862 inquiry.
- St Peter Julian Eymard (1811–1868) – preached retreats here; founder of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.
- Pope John Paul II – visited in 1983 and 2004; declared 11 February World Day of the Sick.
- Blessed Pope John XXIII – as nuncio, consecrated the underground basilica in 1958.
Related
References
- ↑ "The 70 miracles recognised by the Church". Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes. https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/miracles-and-miraculous-healings/.
- ↑ "Diocese of Tarbes et Lourdes". GCatholic.org. http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/tarb0.htm.
- ↑ "Diocèse de Tarbes et Lourdes – Réorganisation 2024". catholique65.fr. https://catholique65.fr.
- ↑ "Populations de référence 2025 – Hautes-Pyrénées". INSEE. https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fichier/8290607/dep65.pdf.