Stock photography picture of The Virgin Mary shrine at Lourdes pilgrimage site in France

AR3759 - Licenced Caption The Virgin Mary shrine at Lourdes pilgrimage site in France Description Lourdes in the Haute-Pyrenees department of south-west France has attracted some 200 million Christian pilgrims since the first appearance of an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1858. Surrounded by mountain peaks, the quiet market town rose to prominence when a 14 year-old shepherdess named Bernadette Soubirous reported seeing a vision of a beautiful lady in the Grotto of Massabielle. Wearing white robes and carrying a rosary on her wrist, the lady identified herself as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception . As words spread of Bernadette`s experience, thousands of Christians began making the sacred journey to Lourdes. Our Lady subsequently appeared a further eighteen times and in 1862, the bishop of the diocese declaring the faithful "justified in believing the reality of the apparition" ordered a basilica to be built on the rock. Lourdes has become one of the world`s leading Marian shrines attracting mass pilgrimages of believers and the infirm. The Catholic Church has officially recognised 68 miracle healings as a result of worship at Lourdes Keywords lourdes, sacred, site, france, christianity, pilgrims, catholic, statue, virgin, mary, sunset