KEY POINTS:
The giant candles kept on arriving. The wheelchairs stacked up along the banks of the Gave River. Nuns and nurses kissed the ground. The queues for the baths lengthened.
A hunched-up old lady in a black shawl whispered to the wall, petitioning the rockface. "In your heart I place all my anguish and it is there that I gain strength and courage."
Pushed towards the famous Massabeille Grotto, a frail, hollow-cheeked man in a bath-chair, a rug over his knees, reading from a small book, muttered: "Mary, you showed yourself to Bernadette in the crevice of the rock in the cold and grey of winter. You are the Immaculate Conception. Come to aid the sinners that we are. Guide us to the source of true life. Teach us to pray for all people."
Some of the faithful walked the steep-wooded 15-station Way of the Cross up on the hill of Espelugues above the Sanctuaries. Others held their hands under the stainless steel taps and sluiced their faces with holy water.
Some were at prayer in the underground basilica. Some fed the ducks from the Bridge of Baths. Many sat in deep contemplation on benches and chairs, their eyes closed, listening to the outside Mass.
Lourdes, in the Hautes-Pyrenees region of France, 175km west of Toulouse, has 15,000 inhabitants but attracts 25,000 visitors every day. They come to see a marble statue in a rock ledge in a cave and to be welcomed by the outstretched arms of the Basilica Rosarie. A total of 66 masses are said each day in 40 places of worship within the 51 ha sacred complex.
In France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes. Charter flights and trains bring in six million pilgrims each year. But not just Roman Catholics. The site is popular with everyone. Mary is venerated in the Koran. So every day Muslims mix with Catholics and other faiths.
"Everyone is welcome and expected here," said a young Irish priest who was holding a 2m vigil candle. "750 tonnes of candles are burned every year at Lourdes. There is a torchlight procession every night at 9pm from April to October. Thousands take part. The candles represent God's presence. The flickering flame His illuminating light. The white candles signify a divine pillar of cloud."
Adjusting the weight of his huge candle, he smiled. "They are a test of faith as they are very heavy."
An English pilgrim carrying a 2-litre plastic jerry can of complimentary cave water explained: "The disabled and diseased and marginalised are in the majority here. Lourdes is a very special place. It has been blessed. Pope John Paul II said Lourdes is the place where heaven and earth pursue a dialogue."
"Some come here for adoration. Or consolation. Or confession. To call for intercession or renew their baptismal vows. Or remember the Beatitudes. Others just to observe. Hope and fraternity are palpable here.
Kindness too. You find yourself in a sea of people devoted to the service of others."
Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the first apparition, when on February 11 the Virgin Mary appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous while she was collecting firewood. Seventeen apparitions of Aquero (the lady) followed between then and July 16.
At Lourdes today you can follow the new Jubilee Walk and see Bernadette's birthplace and le cachot (or dungeon) in the Rue Petits-Fosses where she lived in poverty after her father lost his mill business and cholera struck the town. You can also visit the church where she received her first Communion and the nearby village of Bartres where she tended sheep.
To mark the anniversary many events will be held throughout the year. Until March 28 there will be series of missions including a Mission for Peace, for Inter-Religious Dialogue and for Young People.
Bernadette described her apparition as "uo petito damizelo" (a young girl). At first she mistook it for a demonic apparition, thinking it a revenant or soul returning from purgatory. The apparition did not speak until the third appearance and then in Occitan, the local patois, it suggested she used a lighted candle for protection. Thus the torchlight processions.
Later the small figure in the flowing white robe and roses on her feet told Bernadette to build chapels and kiss the ground as penance. On her ninth visitation she showed the shepherd girl a miraculous spring.
There have been many such Marian apparitions including one at Walsingham in Norfolk in 1061, and a visitation to an Indian milkman in Vailankanni in 1600, and others
at La Vang in Vietnam (1798), Paris (1830), Pontmain in France (1871), Knock in Ireland (1879), Fatima in Portugal (1917), Beauraing in Belgium (1932) and Girgenti in Malta (1940). There was even a sighting in Surbiton in Surrey in 1985.
There have been other visions in the general area of Lourdes. In the adjacent village of Betharram some shepherds saw a vision of a ray of light which guided them to a statue of the Virgin Mary.
In the early 16th century, a 12-year-old shepherdess named Angleze de Sagazan claimed she saw a vision near a spring at nearby Garaison. Her story is strikingly similar to that of Bernadette, and she eventually convinced authorities her vision was genuine.
Bernadette also had some initial difficulty persuading the church the woman she saw was indeed Mary, but her account was finally accepted in 1862 and the statue of Notre Dame de Lourdes installed in the Massabeille (old rock) grotto two years later.
Bernadette died in Nevers convent in 1879 and was canonised in 1933. Her body was exhumed three times and found to be incorrupt.
There have been more than 7000 claimed cures at the shrine based on her visions, but only 68 recognised by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, a group of theologians and doctors charged with investigating claims in 1905.
One was Liverpudlian John Traynor, who was paralysed fighting in the Dardenelles but walked again after visiting Lourdes and taking the waters.
The last miracle, involving Italian Anna Santianello, happened in 1952 but only in 2005 was it recognised as inexplicable.
Thousands continued to be drawn here. As I watched, three Boy Scouts carried a 1.5m candle. A voice intoned "Saloe, Regina; mater misericordia,vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, saloe."
Another pilgrim beside me whispered, "Ave Maria Gratia plena Dominus tecum Virgo serena."
Then, as the processions of pilgrims moved another few yards: "O Mary our mother we come to this place where you who are sinless appeared full of grace."
A teenage boy assisting a handicapped girl looked around. "You learn a lot from coming to Lourdes," he said. "One hundred countries are represented here every day. It's a transfiguring place.
"You can't help be moved and touched. Whatever your beliefs you feel belief."
LOURDES - GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand
GETTING AROUND
Rental cars from Avis can be collected at Toulouse Blagnac Airport. See www.avis.co.uk.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Latitudes Golf International de Seilh Rote de Grenade is a wonderful leisure centre near Toulouse Airport and a good base to explore Gascony. See www.latitudes-hotels-toulouse.com.
A pleasant option in Lourdes is
Grand Hotel de Groltte, built in 1872 and now run by Annick and Louis-Francois Guinguene. See www.hoteldelagrotte.com.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Visit www.lourdes-infotourisme.com.
