The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary (French: Notre Dame du Rosaire de Lourdes) is a Catholic church and minor basilica within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Its main theme is a celebration and depiction of the Rosary.
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary (French: Notre Dame du Rosaire de Lourdes) is a Catholic church and minor basilica within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Its main theme is a celebration and depiction of the Rosary.
Our Lady of Lourdes (French: Notre-Dame de Lourdes; Occitan: Nòstra Senhora de Lorda) is one of the devotional names or titles under which the Catholic Church venerates the Virgin Mary. The name commemorates a series of 18 apparitions reported by a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in Lourdes, France in 1858. After the first reported apparition on 11 February 1858, Bernadette told her mother that a "Lady" had spoken to her in the cave of Massabielle (1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from the town) while Bernadette, her sister, and a friend were gathering firewood. Bernadette reported similar apparitions of the "Lady" over the ensuing weeks, in the last of which the "Lady" identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception". On 18 January 1862, the local Bishop of Tarbes Bertrand-Sévère Laurence endorsed the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes.
On 1 February 1876, Pope Pius IX officially granted a decree of canonical coronation to the image as Notre-Dame du Saint Rosaire. The coronation was performed by Cardinal Pier Francesco Meglia at the courtyard of what is now part of the Rosary Basilica on 3 July 1876.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes (French: Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Lourdes; Occitan: Santuari de Nòstra Senhora de Lorda) is a Catholic Marian shrine and pilgrimage site dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France. The sanctuary includes several religious buildings and monuments around the grotto of Massabielle, the place where the events of the Lourdes apparitions occurred in 1858, among them are three basilicas, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the Rosary Basilica and the Basilica of St. Pius X, respectively known as the upper, lower and underground basilica.
The sanctuary is a destination for sick and disabled pilgrims as the Lourdes water, which has flowed from the grotto since the apparitions, is reputed for miraculous healings. The area is owned and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes, and has several functions, including devotional activities, offices, and accommodation for sick and disabled pilgrims and their helpers. In addition to the grotto and the three basilicas, the sanctuary includes fountains providing Lourdes water, baths for immersion in the water, an esplanade for processions, a calvary, the offices of the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and several places of worship in a 52-hectare (130-acre) area.