Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes

Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate

In the year of Our Lord 1858, four years after the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Blessed Pius IX, a poor, illiterate and asthmatic peasant girl named Bernadette Soubiroux went to gather firewood in a rocky grotto near the town of Lourdes in southern France. After a sudden frightening noise like an approaching storm, a beautiful young woman with a kind, motherly smile appeared in the grotto, wearing a white gown and veil, a blue girdle, and a golden rose on each bare foot. Bernadette instinctively knelt to pray her rosary, and the beautiful lady silently followed her own set of white beads, only speaking to say the Glory Be after each decade. Bernadette saw the beautiful lady seventeen more times, undergoing great ridicule and persecution before an investigation finally approved the apparitions. On February 25th, the lady directed Bernadette to dig in the dirt near the grotto; a spring welled up, which to this day pours forth miraculous healing waters at the shrine. On the feast of the Annunciation, the lady declared: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. The Blessed Virgin Mary’s eighteen apparitions to St. Bernadette are celebrated together on this anniversary of her first appearance.

Traditional Roman Martyrology for February 11th

AT Lourdes, in France, the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate.

In Africa, during the persecution of Diocletian, the birthday of the holy martyrs Saturninus, a priest, Dativus, Felix, Ampelius, and their companions. They had, as was their custom, assembled for Mass, when they were seized by the soldiers and put to death, under the proconsul Anolinus.

In Numidia, in the same persecution, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, who, refusing after their apprehension to deliver the holy Scriptures, conformably to the imperial edict, were given over to most painful torments and slain.

At Adrianople, the holy martyrs Lucius, bishop, and his companions. Lucius suffered much from the Arians under Constantius, and terminated his martyrdom in prison. The others, who were among the principal citizens, refusing to
communicate with the Arians, just then anathematized in the Council of Sardica, were condemned to capital punishment by Count Philagrius.

At Lyons, St. Desiderius, bishop of Vienne, and martyr.

At Ravenna, St. Calocerus, bishop and confessor.

At Milan, St. Lazarus, bishop.

At Capua, St. Castrensis, bishop.

At Chateau-Landon, St. Severin, abbot of the monastery of Agaunum, by whose prayers the Christian king Clovis was delivered from a long sickness.

In Egypt, St. Jonas, a monk, eminent for virtues.

℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

℟. Thanks be to God.