From Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th October, 17,000 pilgrims will gather in Lourdes to take part in the Rosary Pilgrimage, including 3,000 young people and 2,700 members of the hospitality serving the sick and disabled. Organised by the Dominican family since 1908, this pilgrimage has become one of the largest spiritual gatherings in France, attracting pilgrims from all walks of life, drawn by devotion to Mary and the desire to pray together before the Grotto of Massabielle.
The Rosary Pilgrimage was founded by the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans, who are committed to spreading the use and the prayers of the Rosary. They are organising this pilgrimage to offer the faithful a special time of prayer and encounter with God and the Virgin Mary, who is at the spiritual heart of the Rosary.
THE 2024 THEME: LET'S FOLLOW CHRIST!
In Lourdes, Mary prepared Saint Bernadette for her First Holy Communion and to receive the Eucharist. She prepared her to follow Christ throughout her life, from Lourdes to Nevers. This is what all Rosary pilgrims are called to experience in a shortened form during these four days of the 2024 pilgrimage. It is an opportunity to discover the truth of Mary’s promise, “I do not promise you the happiness of this world, but that of the Gospel.” In Lourdes, we learn to embrace this joy, so that we can proclaim it when we return home.
Each year, all pilgrims coming on the Rosary Pilgrimage are invited to take part in a catechetical journey based on one or more of the recommended gestures, accompanied by young people, members of the hospitality, in the footsteps of Bernadette and the Virgin Mary, and even more so this year, as followers of Christ!
2024 Programme
The Rosary Pilgrimage programme is packed with liturgical and spiritual events. Highlights include: Masses, the Eucharistic procession, the torchlight procession, the penitential vigil at the Basilica of Saint Pius X, the sung vigil with the Rosary choir… Every day is interspersed with conferences and presentations on a variety of themes.
Three major innovations for 2024:
– A new podium at the foot of the crowned Virgin Mary
– A new route for the Eucharistic processions
– A staged musical presentation – “The Rosary is a celebration”
Veneration of the relics during the pilgrimage
This year, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Bernadette will meet in Lourdes for the Rosary Pilgrimage!
The Church encourages the veneration of relics as a way of feeling close to those who have gone before us in the faith. By venerating the relics of saints, we follow in their footsteps as people searching for God by following their example.
Between 2023 and 2025, we are celebrating the 700th anniversary of the canonisation of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the 750th anniversary of his death and the 800th anniversary of his birth. As part of this triple jubilee, the Rosary pilgrimage is an opportunity to venerate the relics of Saint Thomas Aquinas and ask for graces through his intercession.
The body of Saint Bernadette is not in Lourdes, but in Nevers, in a casket, because when the saint was exhumed, her body was intact.
However, some relics have been kept in Lourdes in a reliquary since 1925. Pilgrims can venerate the relics every day in the Saint-Michel chapel, to the right of the entrance to the Crypt. Other reliquaries travel all over the world.
A shared experience of communion and togetherness
The Rosary Pilgrimage is above all a moment of communion between believers. Participants, whether young or old, sick or healthy, come together to share their faith and their hope. It’s a time when togetherness and support for one another take centre stage. Many young people, in particular, come as members of the hospitality, offering their practical and spiritual support to the more vulnerable pilgrims.
