Feb. 11 marks the anniversary of the Virgin Mary appearing to Bernadette in Lourdes, France
McKena Miyashiro |
The grotto at Massabielle in Lourdes, France has been a site for religious pilgrimages for millions of people since the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to 14-year-old St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. After a series of apparitions of Mary to Bernadette, Bernadette was told to dig in the mud with her hands. As she did, a spring of water began to flow. 67 miraculous healings have been recognized at Lourdes since 1858. The Catholic Church celebrates Our Lady of Lourdes on Feb. 11, the anniversary of the first apparitions of Mary.
Kari Hill, a senior English major at UP, visited Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France in the summer of 2010. Hill was part of a youth pilgrimage that journeyed through different areas of Europe visiting different churches and pilgrimage sites.
Q: How did it make you feel once you saw Our Lady of Lourdes?
A: It was amazing. Really, it was kind of like something out of a dream. It was really cool because I'd grown up in a really small Catholic school and I always heard about the stories of Bernadette. We had a VHS when I was really little of the Bernadette story and I'd seen a bunch of movies about it over the years. And finally just going to the place that she actually was...seeing the cave...you know, where the grotto is, and just seeing the church that was built there. And just everything. It was pretty amazing.
Q: Did your visit enrich your faith?
A: Yeah, it's a very spiritual experience and just being there in itself. And the biggest thing in Lourdes is, of course, the healing waters that Mary told Bernadette to go dig in the grotto with her hands. And when she dug there with her hands, a spring came up and this spring had healing properties and it's basically the miracle of Lourdes...where people go and bathe in the waters and receive this grace of healing. They have fountains with spouts laid all over the walls and people can splash themselves with the water. You can really feel a sense of spirituality about it. The entire time I was there, we were filling up our water bottles and just drinking that water all the time. There was just a great sense of a joy just to be there.
Q: If given the chance, would you recommend for others to see Our Lady of Lourdes?
It's definitely a place that you want to go because people don't think of Lourdes usually when they think of traveling around Europe. And it’s an extremely small town and it’s really off the map. When I was in Salzburg, I wanted to go back to Lourdes but I couldn't find train connections or anything to get there. It's really hard to get there, but once you get there, though, there is something about it. There's just an atmosphere of holiness. The church is amazing. It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. So is the countryside.
Q: What is the message of Lourdes to you?
A: Appreciate the little things. You know, Bernadette was just an ordinary young girl and people didn't respect her all that much as an individual. And yet, Mary appeared to her and she spread this message and she asked her to have a church built where the grotto was. And people actually did. And now its a central place for Christians to come together.
Answers have been edited for brevity.
