In 1858, Bernadette Soubirous's reported a vision of Our Lady of Lourdes. Soubirous claimed she saw a miraculous Lady in white, with a golden
rosary and blue belt fastened around her waist, and two golden roses at
her feet on a hill who asked her to request that the local priests build
a chapel at the site of the vision. After church investigations confirmed her visions, a large church was built at the site, Our Lady of Lourdes in France.
A simple, 14-year old peasant girl of no significant educational experience, reported that in her vision a woman in white spoke to her, Que soy la Immaculada concepcion, I am the Immaculate Conception, and asked that a church be built there. At first ridiculed, questioned, and belittled by Church officials and other contemporaries, Bernadette insisted on her vision. Eventually the Church believed her and she was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933. Lourdes is now a major Marian pilgrimage site: within France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes.
A simple, 14-year old peasant girl of no significant educational experience, reported that in her vision a woman in white spoke to her, Que soy la Immaculada concepcion, I am the Immaculate Conception, and asked that a church be built there. At first ridiculed, questioned, and belittled by Church officials and other contemporaries, Bernadette insisted on her vision. Eventually the Church believed her and she was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933. Lourdes is now a major Marian pilgrimage site: within France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes.
