The Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France 1858

Join John Carpenter, Donald Hartley, and the Deeper Truth research team as we examine one of the most famous Marian apparitions in 1858.

Thursday, February 11th 1858 was the day Our Lady revealed herself to Bernadette in the grotto at Massabielle (Old Rock) by the river Gave just outside Lourdes. The grotto itself was not a particularly savoury place, full of river-swept debris and where pigs had been kept.

Between 11 February and 16 July 1858, a young girl called Bernadette Soubirous experienced eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a cave on the outskirts of Lourdes, now known as the Grotto.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary recalling her apparitions in 1858 in the grotto at Lourdes, France to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old peasant girl. Our Lady instructed Bernadette to dig in the ground nearby, from which came a spring with healing properties, active to this day.

1858 – February 11: first apparition at the Grotto of Massabielle. 1858 – June 3: Bernadette made her first communion. 1858 – July 16: last of the 18 Apparitions. 1858 – July 17: Bernadette met a bishop (that of Montpellier) for the first time.

The beautiful lady asked Bernadette to come here every day for fifteen days. She said that she wanted Bernadette to tell the priests to build a chapel there. She told her to drink water from the stream. The lady also told Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners.