THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2326, 29 September 1898, Page 49

THE SKETCHER.

HOW LOURDES BECAME FAMOUS. Extract from "A Pilgrimage to Lourdes," by Mrs Alec Tweedie, in Pearson's Magazine. Lourdes, one of the most extraordinaxy products of the nineteenth century, the head- ; quarters of the greatest pilgrimago of modern '• times, has recently celebrated its twenty j fifth anniversary, and marvellous have been I the rejoicings. Hundreds and thousands ; have journeyed hither to throw themselves ' at the feet of L'lmmaculee! Consequently, what may fitly be termed the Silver Wedding of Lourdes has been kept with un- 1 bounded exultation. The Pyrenean village ! is to-day one of the mightiest strongholds j of Roman Catholicism, and it may be added, j for its size, the most prosperous. Those who J have appreciated at its full worth, the splen- \ did art of ancient Rome — who have peeped into well nigh all the picture galleries of Europe and beheld the wondrous paintings of old masters, most of which were executed for the Romish Church, cannot have j failed to recognise the debt of gratitude due to the monks of yore who fostered learning and advanced civilisation, or to realise that j in the past the faith they held was the living i motive power of the world of thought. That j time is, to a certain extent, past ; neverthe- j less, the old religion still holds sway, and as ] we peep into the mysteries of Lourdes we feel j that sway has lost none of its power. . . " But how," it may naturally be asked, " did this up-to-date, prosperous town achieve such greatness? What is the origin j of the fame of a small village that less than j half a century ago was sleeping quietly, a3 j it had slept for hundreds of years previously, I on the borders of the Pyrenees, between Pau ; and Argeles?" It was not really in the ; mountains, so visitors passed by unheeding, | because they preferred to get into the Hautes , Pyrenees and enjoy the higher mountain air, j rather than stop at the entrance of the • chasm in uninteresting Lourdes. No traveller then had ever heard of this village ; it ■ was a peaceable, quiet kind of a place, wherfe the Basque peasants plied their simple trades ' — the women spinning and the men tending j their kine — until the year 1858 — but 40 yeai'3 J ago ! Well may the people of Lourdes bless , the name of Bernadette, for their little ham- | let has within the time mentioned become ■ a large, flourishing, and rich town ; mag- j nificent hotels are crammed to overflowing, i the coffers of the church contain untold wealth, and prosperity is written large on the face of every inhabitant. Not so very many years since children played down by the river, where the trees grew almost to the water's edge, and rocks rose somewhat I perpendicularly. They gambolled and fro- j licked among the rocky boulders, in fhe midst of which there stands a cave. It is not a remarkable cave ; perhaps in front some 30 or 40 feet high and. wide, and very j narrow at the back. Sauntering idly by the j riverside one day in the year 1858, the daughter of a miller, a girl of about 14 years of age, described as " frail, delicate, of boundless virtue and innocence," paused by the mouth of this Grotto, where in a little indenture of the rock itself the wind suddenly rustled the leaves on moss and creeper-grown walls, When Bernadette glanced half frightened towards the spot whence the mysterious noise proceeded, she beheld an apparition of the Virgin. In a French book we are told that the girl, choking with emotion, raised i her head, but she immediately felt paralysed, and fell on her knees. A stone slab on the roadside opposite chronicles : " Place ou priait Bernadette, le | 11, Fevrier, 1858." Yes, there, amid rustic j surroundings, stood a vision of incomparable ! beauty, haloed with celestial light ! She was quite young, carried herself with " the faith of a Virgin, the gravity of a mother, and the majesty of a Queen." Her smile was of infinite grace, her eyes were blue, and her mouth possessed an expression of sweetness and virtue. Rik was robed in white, the long garment sheMßrore reaching below her bare feet ; a blue girdle fell from the folds that covered her head ! From that hour Lourdes became famous. Several times the Virgin reappeared to Bernadette, and on one of these occasions stepped forward, and, after promising to the girl happiness in this workl as well as in that to come, begged her to ask the priests to build a church near the spot, •where the sick might drink and be bathed in the waters. It is this spring that has worked such miracles in France, and, according to good Catholics, all over the wcrld. Even bathing the dead at Lourdes to bring back life has been tried, but so far ,-without success? The last time the apparition appeared Bernadette asked the vision's /name, and received the reply:, "Je suis I'Jmmactilee Conception." ' : Accounts of this apparition were told and retold ; the story became more and more Wonderful in progi'esiS of regetitionj. till sud-

denly Bernadette was transformed into a saint. People rushed from all parts of the country to kiss the hem of her frock, or even to kneel before her. Imagination was aroused, seeds of mystery grew apace in excitable minds, and before long thousands flocked to see the favoured child and the scene of the appearance, until Bernadette herself had to seek the protection of the church — the tale of her persecution making her a martyr. She was brought before the magistrates ; but refused to admit the apparition was a dream, although some of the doctors who examined her affirmed the wholo thing to. be a case of hysteria. All this brought at first an almost unpleasant notoriety to Lourdes, the priests felt alarmed, and visitors and pilgrims were for a time prohibited. As the story became more and more known, and the village more and more pros perous, the girl attracted so much attention that the church had to intervene once again, and sent Bernadette to a convent, in order that she might live in retirement. Although then over 14 years of age, it is on record t?jat the nuns experienced difficulty in teaching her to read and write, for her intellect appeared to be none of the brightest.