Why is Lourdes famous?

Answer 1

Lourdes is a sacred place, because Mary visited there. Also, because it is the home of a spring which contains miraculous water. St. Burnadette was told of this spring's miraculous powers by Our Lady, when she saw her. Since then, the spring has saved many lives and made many others so much happier.

Answer 2

Roman Catholic AnswerLourdes, France is the village where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in 1858. There have been literally dozens and dozens of stupendous miracles over the last 150 years proved by an international committee to investigate them.

Answer 3

It is believed that in Lourdes there is a spring which can heal people. Many disabled people go, or the carers of people who are too sick go and either drink or collect the water. It should be noted however that only Catholics believe this.

Answer 4

In 1858, A young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, supposedly saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near Lourdes. Bernadette called the young woman in her visions aquero - 'that one' or 'ghost' - and it was only when others told her she had seen the Virgin Mary that Bernadette realised that she had indeed done so. Although she was sometimes accompanied by others when she saw these apparitions, only Bernadette was able to see the visions she described. The local clergy ridiculed her claims but then, as pilgrims began to arrive, accepted them as true.

Robert A. Scott (Miracle Cures) describes how the Catholic Church soon saw the commercial possibilities of these apparitions and aggressively marketed Lourdes as a place of pilgrimage. In 1866, the Missionaries of Notre Dame de Garaison took over administration and began to publicise it aggressively in the French Catholic Press. Lourdes was promoted through newspapers, guidebooks and other publications. The economic potential of Lourdes was further exploited when the Augustian Fathers of the Assumption assumed joint ownership of the shrine with the Grotto Fathers and encouraged pilgrimage.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/catholicism/visions-of-the-virgin-mary

Answer 5

Lourdes became famous as the news spread from person to person, and was even published in the secular media about the miracle cures that were occurring through the spring of water which had appeared out of nowhere at Lourdes. As these cures multiplied and people were cured of all kinds of things, the news spread even faster worldwide about Our Lady's appearances there.
Throughout the past 2,000 years of history, Our Blessed Lady has appeared numerous times, with the same message every time: that people need to repent of their sins, believe in her Son, pray, and reform their lives. When Our Blessed Lady does appear, it is used to an innocent who has, as yet, been untouched by the "world, the flesh, and the Devil." Lourdes was one of these incidents. At Lourdes, Our Blessed Lady appeared to Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, a young French girl, who later became a religious sister. One of the outstanding differences with her appearance at Lourdes were the spring, which was not there before, and the healing miracles which have occurred there right from the beginning.
Because of these miracles, people continue to pilgrimage to Lourdes and pray for the Virgin's intercession.
There have been uncounted miracles at Lourdes over the years. For the most part these are miracles which cannot be seen - spiritual and mental healings. However, the most amazing part, since the very beginning, has been the physical healings, of which there have been literally thousands. Because of skeptics and others who are wont to disparage this, the Church has been very cautious about proclaiming real miracles, and the unbelievable strictness of the requirements for a "complete physical healing miracle" mean that very few are actually accounted miracles on the Church's official lists: for the miracle to be recorded by the Church, it must be completely unexpected, the patient must be taking no medications or other treatments which might have effected the cure; the cure must be total and lasting, and totally unexplainable. Of the nearly 7,000 recorded miracles, only 67 have been validated as meeting all of the Vatican's stringent requirements. (See the third link at the bottom) But if you talk to any serious pilgrim who has gone to Lourdes with a real problem for healing, 90% of the time they will tell you that, for them, they had a real healing somehow. The 67 cases are indications beyond any possible skeptic, proving that Our Blessed Lady is indeed praying to God to work these miracles, and everyone who has gone and asked God for healing is touched in some way. Some of the cures have been inexplicitly worked on non-believers who weren't even aware of where they were.

Answer 6

It was here that the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous, & revealed to her that she is the Immaculate Conception.

Answer 7

Pilgrims travel there hoping to be cured of their illnesses. It is an apparition site of the BVM.

Answer 8

Mary, the Mother of God appeared to St. Bernadette here.

Answer 9

because this is a place which the virgin mary was supposedly seen

Answer 10

Our Blessed Lady appear 18 times to Saint Bernadette in 1858 in Lourdes, France. Even before her final apparition the town had become a pilgrimage destination.