Lourdes pools completely reopen and 30,000 pilgrims are expected for the Assumption

The pools at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France have fully reopened for the first time in four years for the national pilgrimage for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary this week.

More than 30,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive in Lourdes for the August 15 holiday, according to news station Europe 1. The week-long celebration will culminate with a Mass and a candlelit Rosary procession, which will be led by thousands of patients in wheelchairs.

The Lourdes plunge pools have been closed since 2020 due first to the pandemic and then to renovation work. During the closing, pilgrims were invited to participate in a “water gesture” by washing their faces, hands and forearms with holy water from the miraculous spring.

The return of the possibility of full immersion in sacred water has been welcomed by the thousands of sick, disabled people and volunteers participating in France’s 151st national pilgrimage for the Solemnity of the Assumption.

“It’s a return to normality,” Father Sébastien Anthony, president of the pilgrimage, told a French radio station.

“Our teams have mobilized to make this possible, so that we can welcome the sick and pilgrims with dignity,” he added.

During the pilgrimage, which takes place from August 12 to 16, the pools will be open from 7:30 am to 8:00 pm (local time), with more than 3,000 people volunteering to allow as many as possible to of pilgrims wash in the baths and participate in the processions, according to the pilgrimage organizers.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most visited religious sanctuaries in the world, attracting more than 5 million visitors each year. It marks the site where a young Saint Bernadette Soubirous witnessed 18 Marian apparitions beginning on February 11, 1858.

During the ninth apparition, the Virgin Mary told Bernadette: “Go drink at the fountain and wash there.” The miraculous spring, which appeared after the seer humbly dug into the earth with her hands, resulted in the healing of a woman with a paralyzed hand in the presence of more than 1,500 people in 1858.

Since then, members of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes have certified 70 healings from that source as “inexplicable based on current medical knowledge.”

He Most recent medical miracle at Lourdes took place in 2008when Sister Bernadette Moriau was cured of total paralysis caused by cauda equina syndrome, a disorder of the nerves and lower part of the spine.

The Marian shrine also places emphasis on spiritual healing through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, offering confessions in French, Italian, English, Spanish, German, Dutch and other languages, in response to Our Lady of Lourdes’ request to Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners.

More than 7,000 people have reported experiencing physical healing due to a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.