Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most popular and beloved titles of Mary venerated in the Catholic Church and all over the world.  On February 11, 1858, a young, French peasant girl named Bernadette was collecting firewood with her sister and a friend near a dumping ground in the town of Lourdes where they lived.  Suddenly, Bernadette saw a beautiful maiden appear with a golden rosary, so she began praying the Rosary with the lady, not knowing who she was.  The lady asked Bernadette to return to the Grotto, and after a while, she revealed herself as “the Immaculate Conception,” which was a title unknown to Bernadette due to her lack of education.  Only those theologically learned enough to understand the new dogma could interpret this to mean that this was, in fact, a woman claiming to be Mary, the Mother of God.

Following Our Lady’s instructions, Bernadette dug in the dirt, where Mary told her a healing spring of water would be found.  Shortly thereafter, pilgrims traveled to discover the veracity of this claim, and many were cured of various physical ailments.  Today, Lourdes is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites for seeking healing.  Here are 10 stories of approved, documented miracles that occurred to pilgrims who traveled to Lourdes, all of which will inspire and encourage our faith in God to grow evermore.

Mrs. Catherine Latapie

The first documented miracle at Lourdes occurred in 1858 when Catherine Latapie felt a sudden urge to travel to Lourdes in search of healing.  Two years prior, she had fallen from a tree and severely injured her right hand.  The accident left two of her fingers entirely paralyzed.  Latapie met Bernadette at the grotto and very simply washed her hand in the small spring that had formed.  Instantaneously, the paralysis of her fingers was gone, and she could move them just as she could before her accident.

Louis Bouriette

The most oft-quoted miracle related to Lourdes happened to Louis Bouriette, a gentleman of 55 years of age in 1858.  Rendered blind in his right eye from a mine explosion (which killed his brother, who was at his side), Bouriette claimed that he immediately went to pray to “Our Lady of the Grotto” as soon as Bernadette scratched the soil at the dumping ground.  He washed his right eye repeatedly in a very short amount of time, praying to Our Lady fervently for a cure.  After washing, his vision returned completely, and in 1862 the cure was deemed “of supernatural character.”

Mrs. Blaisette Cazenave

Another cure related to restoration of vision is attributed to Blaisette Cazenave, a woman who suffered from chronic conjunctivitis and an infection that left her eyelids scaly and sore.  Her condition was labeled incurable when she, at the age of 51, used the water at Lourdes as a lotion on her eyes.  Immediately, the scales fell from her eyelids, and her vision was completely restored.  Even the pain and inflammation she suffered was entirely gone.

Henri Busquet

Truly inspirational in nature and a testament of the young man’s faith, Henri Busquet was only 16 years old at the time of his cure.  Suffering for over a year with a fever attributed to the onset of tuberculosis, Busquet subsequently developed a neck abscess that his doctor eventually lanced, but his condition only worsened.  He begged his parents for a trip to Lourdes, but they refused to take him.  Persistent in his faith, he turned to a neighbor and requested some healing water from Lourdes be brought to him.  Once the returned to him with the vial of holy water, Busquet’s family gathered to pray together as his dressings were applied, which were soaked in water.  After sleeping that night, he awoke to discover that his ulcer had scarred over and his infection was gone!  The miracle was approved in 1862.

Justin Bouhort

Justin was only 2 years old when he was cured at Lourdes.  From birth, he was considered a “failure to thrive case,” labeled hopeless by medical standards.  Shortly before his parents brought him to Lourdes, he contracted tuberculosis and was dying from it.  Carrying young Justin in her arms, his mother walked to the Grotto out of desperation, knowing that she could be banished at the time, since in 1858 there was a period of time in which the public were banned from visiting the Grotto.  Even so, and despite the outcries of people walking by, she prayed by the rock and then bathed Justin in the hollow recently dug by laborers.  As she walked home, carrying his limp body in her arms, she realized that Justin was still breathing and then slept peacefully through the night.  Justin made a full recovery and even lived to attend St. Bernadette’s canonization in 1933.

Serge Perren

At the age of 35, Serge Perren was diagnosed with an odd neurological condition that affected his vision and left him unconscious at times.  After being admitted to a neurological hospital in 1964, he continued to regress to the point of total blindness and recurrent episodes of blacking out.  The prognosis was bleak.  As an act of faith, Perren made a pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1969, but he returned without any progress in healing whatsoever.  Discouraged, he continued treatment, but was considered a total invalid by medical standards.  After his wife’s prompting, however, he returned to Lourdes in 1970 only to appease her.  After he received the Anointing of the Sick, he immediately felt a physical sensation in his body and was able to see, though unclearly.  Over time, he made a miraculous and complete recovery.  Shortly thereafter, the Lourdes medical bureau declared his healing to be “certain, instantaneous, and lasting.”

Vittorio Micheli

Vittorio Micheli was a soldier in the Alpine Corps and spent a lengthy amount of time in a military hospital following an untreatable and inoperable diagnosis of sarcoma on his left hip.  Physicians and surgeons tried every medical option available during 1962, but to no avail.  After an entire year in the hospital, Micheli’s hip was completely deteriorated.  Even so, he chose to make the pilgrimage to Lourdes with his diocese in 1963.  After bathing in the spring from his hip to foot in a cast, nothing notable happened immediately to Micheli.  However, curiously, he was required to return to the military hospital after the pilgrimage ended, at which point various x-rays and tests clearly showed physical improvements in his hip!  In fact, the reports claimed it was a “remarkable reconstruction of his hip,” and in thanksgiving, Micheli has returned to Lourdes annually since 1963.

Jean-Pierre Bely

Declared a total invalid at age 51, Jean-Pierre Bely made a pilgrimage to the shrine in 1987.  Bely was paralyzed by multiple sclerosis and had been in a medical condition that completely withstood any advancements in treatment since 1972.  Without despairing, however, Bely’s faith in Our Lady as he made the pilgrimage was confirmed by his miraculous healing.  Many who accompanied him to Lourdes believed he would die before completing the trip.  He even received the Anointing of the Sick when he finally made it to the shrine.  Afterwards, however, he could immediately walk and has since made an entire recovery.

Anna Santaniello

After visiting the shrine in 1952, Anna Santaniello reported a complete healing of a fatal disease she had since childhood, rheumatic heart disease.  The illness had taken the life of two of her siblings, so her prognosis was dire.  At the time of her pilgrimage to Lourdes, Santaniello was 42 years old.  In 1964, the Church declared her recovery as an “extraordinary healing,” and it was officially added to the registry of Lourdes miracles in 2004.

Serge Francois

The most recently approved miracle at Lourdes occurred when Serge Francois, at the age of 56, made a pilgrimage to Lourdes for healing.  His left leg was left almost completely immobile after two surgeries that left him with a herniated disc.  As with most pilgrims, Francois washed his face and drank the water from the spring at Lourdes in April 2002, at which point the healing in his leg began to take place.  After his full recovery in 2003, Francois approached the medical board at Lourdes to investigate his claim, which was approved in 2011 by Bishop Emmanuel Delmas of Angers, France.

What Lourdes miracles do you know?