On February 11, 1858 a 14 year old French teenager experience the first of 18 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She saw a young, beautiful lady, "lovelier than I have ever seen," clothed in while, wearing a blue sash, with hands together in a posture of prayer and a rosary hanging from her right arm. Eventually the beautiful lady in the apparition told Bernadette Soubiroux, "I am the Immaculate Conception."
The incredulous local priest had told Bernadette that he wouldn't believe the apparitions were real unless the lady told Bernadette what her name was. Bernadette had not known that just 4 years earlier Pope Pius IX had declared the Immaculate Conception as a doctrine of the faith. Imagine how pleased the Pope was when he heard that the doctrine he had defined was affirmed by Our Lady herself!
In time Lourdes became the most visited shrine on earth. Not just Catholic shrines, or Christian shrines. Lourdes is the most visited of all shrines on earth and an untold number of miracles of healing have happened there. Why? Because the biggest secret about Lourdes is that the whole focus at the shrine is on Jesus and the Eucharist, with Mary as intercessor, but with Jesus clearly being the healer. Mary did not seek for herself devotion from Bernadette, but sought that she and all those who would come to the shrine would be devoted to Jesus and the Eucharist. Therein lies the reason for all the healings.
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