In Lourdes, on 25th March 1858, the Lady said her name
The feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on 25th March, nine months before 25th December, the date of Christ’s birth. In Lourdes, we also celebrate an event in the year 1858, that changed the life of the small town of 4,000 inhabitants. On 25th March 1858, the Lady who appeared to Bernadette Soubirous gave her long-awaited name: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
When 25th March falls during Holy Week, as is the case this year (2024), it is celebrated on the Monday after Easter: 8th April.
Programme for Monday 25th March, anniversary of the 16th apparition
10.00am: Mass at the Grotto
12 noon: Recount of the Apparition and Angelus at the Grotto
3.00pm: Rosary at the Grotto
5.15pm: Adoration at the Basilica of the Rosary
8.30pm: Rosary by torchlight at the Grotto
25th March 1858, sixteenth apparition
During the three weeks when there was no apparition, in a calm that, for officials, seemed to bode well, Bernadette wrapped herself in silence. However, the following day’s feast aroused a subtle hope; those who were convinced that it was the Blessed Virgin who had been appearing to Bernadette, thought that she may well appear for her Annunciation.
Surprise! The buzz that had been circulating for a week attracted a few dozen people.
The young white girl was there, faithful to the appointment she had fixed, for Bernadette alone. After a long absence, the taste of a friendship rediscovered, added to the joy of the previous apparitions.
After Bernadette had made several attempts to put together a sentence that she had tried to learn by heart but had been unable to remember, the vision finally revealed its name: “She raised her eyes to heaven, stretched out her hands which were and open towards the earth then joined them in a sign of prayer, and said to me: Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou.” Bernadette left hurriedly and, on the way back, constantly repeated these that words she did not understand.
These words disturbed the priest. Bernadette was unaware of this theological expression which referred to the Blessed Virgin. Four years earlier, in 1854, Pope Pius IX had made it a truth of the Catholic faith (the dogma of the Immaculate Conception).
