Lourdes and the Pilgrimage Industry

Lourdes used to be an obscure little village. Then came the apparitions and nothing was the same. Lourdes today is probably the most visited pilgrimage centre in the world (followed, apparently, by Our Lady of Guadalupe – so now I've visited the two most popular Marian shrines in the world - see this post).

Evidence of the tourism industry is apparent throughout – hotels everywhere, lots of Paris-style cafes along the roads and most of all, lots and lots of gift shops. Attractions-wise, they are pretty much all religious. Aside from the Sanctuary, we visited the birthplace of Bernadette and Le Cachot, the little hovel Bernadette's family was staying in when she first saw the apparitions.

Many people come here also to walk in the footsteps of St Bernadette. 2008 was the 150th Anniversary of the Apparitions and a route is marked on the roads in blue for those who want to visit the sites associated with Bernadette.

The shops sell mainly religious artefacts, including the candles for the candlelight procession and the ubiquitous bottles for Lourdes water. My mother brought with her 4 Listerine bottles, courtesy of a relative. My mother explained herself: “they are flat and easy to pack”, but the Lourdes water bottles were themselves also reasonably packable. Well, we had bought a few larger 500ml ones and several small little bottles to fill and give away. The shops also open pretty late, particularly those near the entrance of the Sanctuary, to catch the late night shoppers after the candle procession.

Our last hour in Lourdes was spent (I am sorry to say) not in prayer and contemplation but in doing some last minute shopping. I did not buy myself any rosaries but did get a few rosary bracelets. It would have been nice and convenient for saying the rosary on the tour itself coz it was certainly a little more difficult getting the rosary ring out of my bag quickly, when Father decided it was time to say a few decades.

My mother, on the other hand, spent some time looking for the perfect statue of our Lady of Lourdes. She ended up buying three, one for my grandmother, one for her god daughter and one for ourselves. Of course, they were neatly packed in her hand luggage as the check-in luggage had all been packed. So when we subsequently went through the metal detector she was stopped and her statues scrutinised for potential explosives.

But despite the hotels, shops and cafes, nothing can take away from the peace of Lourdes. It is a place of prayer and healing. So on our last day here, we did do a tour of the Sanctuary for one last time, washed our faces in Lourdes water, and checked on the candle we lit the previous night. The rain of the previous day was replaced by sunny skies and so we sat across the river from the grotto and said a quiet prayer that the peace of Lourdes would stay with us.

See more of my photos here.