Lourdes

Some 5 million visitors, from 130 countries, come to Lourdes each year. There are an average of seventy masses per day in the forty places of worship offered by the Sanctuary.

The large two-level basilica is built into the base of a hill, with gardens and footpaths on the hillside above. We understood that each level is considered a basilica, and masses were scheduled in both throughout the day, and in many languages in other chapels on adjacent streets. Hundreds of wheelchairs and stretcher-carts are parked in sheds next to the hospital near the basilica. They are used by the unbelievable number of sick and disabled, who come to Lourdes for healing.

Past the basilica we came to the famous “la Grotte des Apparitions.” It is a small shallow cave with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and with crutches hanging from its roof near the entrance.