Lourdes water
Encyclopedia
Lourdes water is water which flows from a spring in the Grotto of Massabielle in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
, France
. The location of the spring was described to Bernadette Soubirous
by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes
on 25 February 1858. Since that time many thousands of pilgrims to Lourdes have followed the instruction of Our Lady of Lourdes to "drink at the spring and wash in it". Lourdes water is not considered holy water
but rather ordinary water taken from a sacred spring.
Although never formally encouraged by the Church, Lourdes water has become a focus of devotion to the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Since the apparitions, many people have claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it, and the Lourdes authorities provide it free of charge to any who ask for it.
, who determined that the water was potable and that it contained the following: oxygen, nitrogen
, carbonic acid
, carbonates of lime and magnesia, a trace of carbonate of iron
, an alkaline carbonate or silicate, chloride
s of potassium
and sodium
, traces of sulphates of potassium and soda, traces of ammonia
, and traces of iodine
. Essentially, the water is quite pure and inert. Lacadé had hoped that Lourdes water might have special mineral properties which would allow him to develop Lourdes into a spa town, to compete with neighbouring Cauterets
and Bagnères-de-Bigorre
.
The French author Emile Zola
visited the Sanctuary in 1891 and again in 1892. He wrote:
During the 1897 Jubilee Pilgrimage to Lourdes, priest François Picard
was thirsty after a long day. Rather than drinking fresh water, he asked an assistant to fill his glass from a bathing pool, heavily contaminated from the sick pilgrims who had been immersed in it. When the father had received [the water], he made the sign of the cross and drank slowly, right to the end. Then, he gave back the glass and concluded with a smile: "The water of the good Mother of Heaven is always delicious."
The next set of piscines was completed in 1891, and tiled in the Virgin's blue. This building was located near to where the water taps are now and can be seen on old photographs of the Domain.
The current baths were constructed in 1955, and upgraded in 1972 and 1980. There are 17 separate bath cubicles, 11 for women and six for men. Each year about 350,000 people use the baths.
The water is not heated and is usually cold; the temperature is around 12oC (54oF.) The immersion lasts around a minute, during which time prayers are recited and veneration of a statue of the Virgin is encouraged. Able-bodied pilgrims are aided by one or two volunteer attendants, but immobile pilgrims sometimes require much more physical help. The water in each bath is constantly being topped up & refreshed via a pump. It is now constantly circulated and purified by irradiation.
. At maximum, the water flows at 40 litres per minute. The water is collected in a cistern, and dispensed via a system of taps near the shrine, where pilgrims may drink it or collect it in bottles or other containers to take with them. The original spring can be seen within the Grotto, lit from below, and protected by a glass screen.
Over the last few years the system of taps has been progressively altered. As of 2008, water is dispensed from a series of taps set into stone in a circle around the base of one of the smaller towers of the Upper Basilica.
In 2002 the Water Walk was introduced, across the Gave and slightly downstream from the Grotto. It consists of a series of nine stations at which there is a small Lourdes water font. The stations form a walkway along the Gave which can be followed in either direction. As they walk, pilgrims are invited to wash or drink, and meditate on passages from the bible. Each station carries one of the titles of the Virgin Mary, such as "Queen of the Apostles", "Mother of Good Counsel", and "Our Lady of Light".
Traditionally, pilgrims collect gallons of water at the taps to be given to family and friends unable to make the trip to Lourdes. As of summer 2007, Mistral Air
passengers on pilgrimage to Lourdes were forbidden to bring containers of water on the plane. Officials at Tarbes
Airport said this was in keeping with new anti-terrorism
regulations about liquids following the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
.
. Saint Bernadette herself said that the water had no healing properties, but that people were healed by their faith and prayers.
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes or the Domain is an area of ground surrounding the shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes, France...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The location of the spring was described to Bernadette Soubirous
Bernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
on 25 February 1858. Since that time many thousands of pilgrims to Lourdes have followed the instruction of Our Lady of Lourdes to "drink at the spring and wash in it". Lourdes water is not considered holy water
Holy water
Holy water is water that, in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and some other churches, has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects; or as a means of repelling evil.The use for baptism and...
but rather ordinary water taken from a sacred spring.
Although never formally encouraged by the Church, Lourdes water has become a focus of devotion to the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Since the apparitions, many people have claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it, and the Lourdes authorities provide it free of charge to any who ask for it.
Chemical analysis
An analysis of the water was commissioned by Mayor Anselme Lacadé of Lourdes in 1858. It was conducted by a professor in ToulouseToulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, who determined that the water was potable and that it contained the following: oxygen, nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
, carbonic acid
Carbonic acid
Carbonic acid is the inorganic compound with the formula H2CO3 . It is also a name sometimes given to solutions of carbon dioxide in water, because such solutions contain small amounts of H2CO3. Carbonic acid forms two kinds of salts, the carbonates and the bicarbonates...
, carbonates of lime and magnesia, a trace of carbonate of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, an alkaline carbonate or silicate, chloride
Chloride
The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine, a halogen, picks up one electron to form an anion Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and can also be called chlorides. The chloride ion, and its salts such as sodium chloride, are very soluble in water...
s of potassium
Potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...
and sodium
Sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals; its only stable isotope is 23Na. It is an abundant element that exists in numerous minerals, most commonly as sodium chloride...
, traces of sulphates of potassium and soda, traces of ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
, and traces of iodine
Iodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....
. Essentially, the water is quite pure and inert. Lacadé had hoped that Lourdes water might have special mineral properties which would allow him to develop Lourdes into a spa town, to compete with neighbouring Cauterets
Cauterets
Cauterets is a spa town, a ski resort and a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.-Geography:Cauterets is located southwest of Lourdes in the beautiful valley of the Gave de Cauterets and borders the Pyrenees National Park....
and Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Bagnères-de-Bigorre is a French commune in the south-western Hautes-Pyrénées department, of which it is a sub-prefecture.-Notable people:Bagnères-de-Bigorre was the birthplace of:*Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke...
.
Bathing
Primitive makeshift bathing installations were constructed in the 1850s by local builders. Until 1880 there were only two pools, filled by a manual pump. In 1880, a wooden bathing-house containing fourteen pools ("piscines") was constructed.The French author Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
visited the Sanctuary in 1891 and again in 1892. He wrote:
- And the water was not exactly inviting. The Grotto Fathers were afraid that the output of the spring would be insufficient, so in those days they had the water in the pools changed just twice a day. As some hundred patients passed through the same water, you can imagine what a horrible slop it was at the end. There was everything in it: threads of blood, sloughed-off skin, scabs, bits of cloth and bandage, an abominable soup of ills... the miracle was that anyone emerged alive from this human slime.
During the 1897 Jubilee Pilgrimage to Lourdes, priest François Picard
François Picard
François Picard was a racing driver from France. He participated in one Formula One Grand Prix, on 19 October 1958. He scored no championship points. This race was his last, as he crashed his Cooper into Olivier Gendebien's Ferrari, which had spun in front of him, and Picard suffered serious...
was thirsty after a long day. Rather than drinking fresh water, he asked an assistant to fill his glass from a bathing pool, heavily contaminated from the sick pilgrims who had been immersed in it. When the father had received [the water], he made the sign of the cross and drank slowly, right to the end. Then, he gave back the glass and concluded with a smile: "The water of the good Mother of Heaven is always delicious."
The next set of piscines was completed in 1891, and tiled in the Virgin's blue. This building was located near to where the water taps are now and can be seen on old photographs of the Domain.
The current baths were constructed in 1955, and upgraded in 1972 and 1980. There are 17 separate bath cubicles, 11 for women and six for men. Each year about 350,000 people use the baths.
The water is not heated and is usually cold; the temperature is around 12oC (54oF.) The immersion lasts around a minute, during which time prayers are recited and veneration of a statue of the Virgin is encouraged. Able-bodied pilgrims are aided by one or two volunteer attendants, but immobile pilgrims sometimes require much more physical help. The water in each bath is constantly being topped up & refreshed via a pump. It is now constantly circulated and purified by irradiation.
Modern times
Lourdes water flows from a spring in the Grotto at the same spot where it was discovered by BernadetteBernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
. At maximum, the water flows at 40 litres per minute. The water is collected in a cistern, and dispensed via a system of taps near the shrine, where pilgrims may drink it or collect it in bottles or other containers to take with them. The original spring can be seen within the Grotto, lit from below, and protected by a glass screen.
Over the last few years the system of taps has been progressively altered. As of 2008, water is dispensed from a series of taps set into stone in a circle around the base of one of the smaller towers of the Upper Basilica.
In 2002 the Water Walk was introduced, across the Gave and slightly downstream from the Grotto. It consists of a series of nine stations at which there is a small Lourdes water font. The stations form a walkway along the Gave which can be followed in either direction. As they walk, pilgrims are invited to wash or drink, and meditate on passages from the bible. Each station carries one of the titles of the Virgin Mary, such as "Queen of the Apostles", "Mother of Good Counsel", and "Our Lady of Light".
Traditionally, pilgrims collect gallons of water at the taps to be given to family and friends unable to make the trip to Lourdes. As of summer 2007, Mistral Air
Mistral Air
Mistral Air srl is a cargo airline based in Rome, Italy. It operates scheduled cargo services on behalf of TNT Global Express and Poste Italiane. It also undertakes flight training...
passengers on pilgrimage to Lourdes were forbidden to bring containers of water on the plane. Officials at Tarbes
Tarbes
Tarbes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.It is part of the historical region of Gascony. It is the second largest metropolitan area of Midi-Pyrénées, with 110,000 inhabitants....
Airport said this was in keeping with new anti-terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
regulations about liquids following the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada...
.
Possible placebo
Many believers experience Lourdes water as helping to improve their health, but there is a risk that sick people may stop taking scientifically based treatments if they have too much confidence in placebosPlacebo effect
Placebo effect may refer to:* Placebo effect, the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work...
. Saint Bernadette herself said that the water had no healing properties, but that people were healed by their faith and prayers.