page_title: Our Lady of Lourdes
section_title: Pontifical approbations
hierarchical_section_title: Our Lady of Lourdes / Approval by the Catholic Church / Pontifical approbations
caption_attribution_description: English: Pope Benedict XVI placing a novelty crown on Our Lady of Lourdes on occasion for the sick pilgrims, 11 February 2007. Saint Peter's Basilica
context_page_description: Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in honour of the Marian apparitions that are claimed to have occurred in 1858 in the vicinity of Lourdes in France. The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar apparitions of the "Lady" were reported on eighteen occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place.
  In 18 January 1862, the local Bishop of Tarbes Bertrand-Sévère Laurence endorsed the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes. On 3 July 1876, Pope Pius IX officially granted a Canonical Coronation to the image that used to be in the courtyard of what is now part of the Rosary Basilica. The image of Our Lady of Lourdes has been widely copied and reproduced in shrines and homes, often in garden landscapes. Soubirous was later canonized as a Catholic saint by Pope Pius XI in 1933.
  After church investigations confirmed her visions, a large church was built at the site.
context_section_description: Pope Pius IX approved the veneration in Lourdes and supported the building of the Cathedral in 1870 to which he donated several gifts. He approved indulgences and issued a Canonical coronation to the courtyard image of the basilica on 3 July 1876.
  Pope Leo XIII  issued an apostolic letter Parte Humanae Generi in commemoration of the consecration of the new Cathedral in Lourdes in 1879. He later issued a Canonical coronation towards an image of Lourdes for India on 8 May 1886.
  As Archbishop of Bologna, future Pope Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa   organized a diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, requesting for Marian veneration in that area.
  Pope Pius X in 1907 introduced the feast of the apparition of the Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes. In the same year he issued his encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, in which he specifically repeated the permission to venerate the virgin in Lourdes.
  Pope Pius XI in 1937 nominated future Pope Eugenio Pacelli as his 'Papal Delegate' to personally visit and venerate in Lourdes. The same Pontiff beatified Soubirous on 6 June 1925 and canonized her on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1933 and determined her Feast Day to be 18 February.
  Pope Pius XII issued a Papal encyclical  Le pèlerinage de Lourdes on the 100th centenary anniversary of the Marian apparitions of Lourdes.
  As Archbishop of Milan, future Pope Giovanni Battista Montini visited Lourdes.
  Pope John Paul II made three religious pilgrimages to Lourdes.
  Pope Benedict XVI issued a novelty coronation towards the Lourdes image on World Day of the Sick in 2007. In September 2008, he visited Lourdes commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions.
  Pope Francis granted a Canonical coronation towards a Lourdes image for the Philippines on 5 September 2019.
caption: Pope Benedict XVI placing a crown[a] on Our Lady of Lourdes for the plenary indulgence he attached for pilgrims of the World Day of the Sick. 11 February 2007. Saint Peter's Basilica.
exif: {}