STATUE - OUR LADY OF LOURDES STATUE - 6.25" HIGH

One of the Catholic Church's most beloved apparitions of the Blessed Mother occurred in Lourdes, France, in 1858, to Bernadette Soubirous, a 14 year-old girl. Our Lady appeared to Bernadette eighteen times in all. She asked Bernadette to pray the rosary, and to do penance for conversion of sinners. During one apparition she directed Bernadette to dig into the ground and drink the water from a spring she would uncover. The spring water soon became the focus of visits to the apparition site because miracles were happening and people were being healed. (The Church is very cautious about declaring claims of healing as miracles. To date, 70 cures out of 7000 reported cases have been pronounced as scientifically inexplicable, better known as miraculous.)On March 25, the Lady revealed to Bernadette her identity when she said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." This was just over three years after Pope Pius IX had declared, on December 8, 1854, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Coincidenc