Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

Today, February 11, marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Marie Bernade Soubirous. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times in the cave at Massabielle [located a mile from Lourdes]. On March 25 our Lady said to Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Lourdes has since become a place of pilgrimage where