The giant candles kept on arriving. The wheelchairs stacked up along the banks of the Gave river. Nuns and nurses kissed the ground. The queues for the baths lengthened.
A hunched-up old lady in a black shawl whispered to the wall, petitioning the rockface. “In your heart I place all my anguish and it is there that I gain strength and courage.”
Pushed towards the famous Massabeille grotto a frail hollow-cheeked man in a bath-chair, a rug over his knees, reading from a small book muttered “Mary you showed yourself to Bernadette in the crevice of the rock in the cold and grey of winter. You are the Immaculate Conception. Come to aid the sinners that we are. Guide us to the source of true life. Teach us to pray for all people.”
Some of the faithful walked the steep wooded 15-station “Way of the Cross” up on the hill of Espelugues, above the Sanctuaries. Others held their hands under the stainless-steel taps and sluiced their faces with holy water. Some were at prayer in the underground basilica. Some fed the ducks from the Bridge of Baths. Others sat in deep contemplation on benches and chairs, their eyes closed eyes listening to the outside Mass.
Lourdes, also called Doors, in the Hautes-Pyrenees department, 175km west of Toulouse, has 15000 inhabitants but attracts 25000 visitors - every day. They come to see a marble statue in a rock ledge in a cave and to be welcomed by the out-stretched arms of the Basilica Rosarie. 66 masses are said each day in forty places of worship within the 51-hectare sacred complex. In France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes. Charter flights and trains bring in six million pilgrims each year.
“Everyone is welcome and expected here“ said a young Irish priest. He was holding a two-metre high vigil candle. 750 tonnes of candles are burnt every year at Lourdes. There is a torchlight procession every night at 9pm from April to October. Thousands take part. “The candles represent God’s presence. The flickering flame His illuminating light. The white candles signify a divine pillar of cloud.”
Photo © Studio GP Photos