2/11/1858
Today is the 150th anniversary of the first apparition at Lourdes. The Blessed Mother appeared to a sickly child named Bernadette Soubirous eighteen times over the course of 1858, beginning on February 11. Today Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics and all who have a devotion to the Lady. The water that flows from the site of the apparitions is believed to have curative powers. The story of Lourdes was eventually immortalized in a romanticized book (later made into a movie) called The Song of Bernadette. Today, Lourdes vies with Medjugorje, Fatima and Guadalupe as the most loved and revered of all the Marian apparition sites.
