While no firm evidence exists to indicate that the grotto of Lourdes was a sacred place in ancient times, there is a powerful healing energy present that has made the site the most visited pilgrimage shrine in all Christendom. The origins of the pilgrimage to Lourdes began with Bernadette Soubirous, the fourteen year old daughter of devout Christian peasants. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Bernadette saw apparitions of a white-robed lady 18 times in a small grotto called Massabiele, along the banks of the river Gave de Pau.
Initially the shrine was not known for its curative power but after 1873, when incidents of healing at the spring began to be reported, the shrine rapidly developed a national and then international reputation for having therapeutic powers. Pilgrims visiting Lourdes for its healing powers bathe in pools filled with cold water piped from Bernadette's spring. Reports of miracles are very thoroughly examined and evidence seems to indicate that there are indeed many cases of verifiable healings at the grotto.
And, why is it that apparitions are most often seen by young children and yet invisible to older persons who are standing nearby? Children, not yet programmed with the adult belief that certain things are impossible, still have a channel of receptivity open to the miraculous.
