Lourdes, the city of joy where the sick are kings!

The most striking thing about Lourdes is the abundance of sick and handicapped people. What would Lourdes be without them? Lourdes is their "place" and they are treated like kings!

Before the pandemic, officially 80,000 sick and handicapped people from all over the world would visit Lourdes every year. They would come to draw the strength they needed to bear their suffering and to find meaning in their struggles from the rock of the Grotto.

Sometimes the sight of so many infirmities is overwhelming, yet at the same time Lourdes feels like a haven of peace and joy. For everyone, Lourdes is the city of miraculous healing.

The first miracles in Lourdes took place during the apparitions to Saint Bernadette of Our Lady in 1858. (There were 18 apparitions in all.) Almost immediately, sick people began to come to the Grotto, in increasingly greater numbers and from further and further away.

At that time, the sight of the sick moved some people so deeply that they spontaneously offered their help. There are now countless men and women volunteers or hospitaliers who assist with lodging, picking up people at the train station and the airport, wheeling the sick on the Rosary Esplanade, to the Grotto, to Masses, to Confession, to the healing baths, etc.

Both the sick and the so-called "healthy" gather together at the Grotto, at the feet of Our Lady of Lourdes, where they help one another by exchanging smiles and praying for each other’s intentions in their hearts.

Adapted from an article in Lourdes

See: Hospitalier Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine