There is a lot of evidence of the appearance of images of saints and archangels to people. Some of these phenomena are associated with certain places on our globe. For example, in the French town of Lourdes and the Portuguese town of Fatima, the image of the Holy Mother of God was repeatedly seen. As a rule, children and adolescents became eyewitnesses of the miracle.
According to Catholic sources, on February 11, 1858, the Virgin Mary herself appeared to a 14-year-old resident of Lourdes (now a small town in the Haute-Pyrenees department), Bernadette Soubirous. It happened not far from the city, in the Massabiel cave, where the girl, obviously, went for a walk.
According to Bernadette, the Mother of God appeared to her 18 times, the last time on June 16 of the same year. She pointed out to Bernadette the source, the water in which was found to be healing.
The clergy of the Catholic Church were at first wary of the facts reported by the girl. She was subjected to numerous interrogations and examinations and came to the conclusion that Bernadette Soubirous was sane and was telling the truth. Subsequently, Bernadette became a nun. In 1933 she was canonized.
About five million pilgrims arrive in Lourdes every year. More than 70 thousand of them hope to find a cure for their ailments here. According to sources, in the first 50 years of the pilgrimage alone, Lourdes water has cured four thousand people from various diseases.
Today, on the place where the Virgin Mary first appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, the temple of Our Lady of Lourdes - Notre Dame de Lourdes was built. You can get there via the Saint-Michel bridge. The underground basilica of St. Pius X can simultaneously accommodate up to 20 thousand people. A statue of the Mother of God is installed in the altar niche.
Passing the neo-Byzantine Basilica of Prayer (Basilique du rosaire) and the neo-Gothic Upper Basilica (Basilique suprieure), visitors find themselves successively in the so-called Miracle Cave (Grotte miraculeuse), the Massabielle Cave (Grotte de Massabielle) and the Cave of Apparitions (Grotte apparitions). They can draw water from a spring discovered by Saint Bernadette. Healing water tanks are one of the main trade items in Lourdes.
Not far from the caves there are 17 fonts - 11 for men and six for women. And to the south of the Upper Basilica, pilgrims enter the Way of the Cross. They have 14 stops to make - Christ had to make the same amount on the way to Calvary …
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The Portuguese city of Fatima (Santarem district), like Lourdes, is one of the world's most famous centers of Christian pilgrimage. The name of the city, as the legend says, was given in honor of a Moorish girl who was baptized here in the XII century. After her baptism, she received the name Oriana, and therefore another nearby town is called Oren.
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Fatima was just a small village, whose inhabitants were engaged in raising sheep and goats. The first miracle happened on May 13, 1917, when three local children grazing cattle - Francisco, Jacinta and their cousin Lucia - saw a certain beautiful woman in the Cova da Iria cave, in whom they recognized the Mother of God. She made several prophecies, including those concerning the fate of the children themselves. So, she announced that Francisco and Jacinta would soon die, and Lucia was destined for a long life … And so it happened. Francisco and Jacinta really soon died of illness, and Lucia in 1919 went to a monastery, where she died in 2005, a little before she was 98 years old …
It is also known that a prophecy was made about Russia, where the October Revolution happened in the same year. But the children did not remember the details.
The late apparitions of the Virgin in Fatima were observed several more times, and not only local residents were eyewitnesses, but also journalists who were rather skeptical of the phenomenon.
The figures of the Catholic Church investigated the events of Fatima and recognized them as a true holy miracle. The Mother of God of Fatima is often also called the Virgin of the Rosary; it is customary to read her prayers on a rosary.
Almost immediately after the miraculous phenomena, pilgrims began to flock here. In the 1920s, the construction of hospitals and hotels began here. In 1928, construction began on the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin. The white limestone temple was designed by renowned Dutch architect Van Kriken in the Spanish Renaissance style. It is surrounded by colonnades of hospitals …
Here, in the Basilica, are the tombs of Francisco and Jacinta, who were the first of the inhabitants of Fatima to meet with the Virgin. Directly on the site of the first apparition, in Cova da Iria, a small chapel was built …
Shlion Irina