Lourdes Almighty

Nuns and nurses kissed the ground. The queues for the baths lengthened.

A hunched-up old lady in a black shawl whispered to the wall, petitioning the rockface: "In your heart I place all my anguish and it is there that I gain strength and courage."

Pushed towards the famous Massabielle grotto, a frail hollow-cheeked man in a bath-chair, a rug over his knees and reading from a small book, muttered: "Mary, you showed yourself to Bernadette in the crevice of the rock in the cold and grey of winter. You are the Immaculate Conception. Come to aid the sinners that we are. Guide us to the source of true life."

Some of the faithful walked the steep, wooded "Way of the Cross" up on the hill of Esplugues above the Sanctuaries. Others held their hands under the stainless steel taps and sluiced their faces with holy water.

Some were at prayer in the underground basilica. Some fed the ducks from the Bridge of Baths. Others sat in deep contemplation on benches and chairs, their eyes closed, listening to the outside Mass.

Welcome to Lourdes, in the Hautes-Pyrenees, in south-west France, home to 15,000 residents and 25,000 visitors every day.

They come as pilgrims to see a marble statue of the Virgin Mary in a rock ledge in a cave, and to be welcomed by the outstretched arms of the Basilica Rosarie.

Sixty-six masses are said each day in 40 places of worship within the 51-hectare sacred complex.

In France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes.

Charter flights and trains bring in six million visitors each year. But they're not all Roman Catholics, the site is popular with everyone. Mary is venerated in the Koran and Muslims mix with Christians and other faiths.

"Everyone is welcome and expected here," said a young Irish priest. He was holding a two metre-high vigil candle.

About 750 tonnes of candles are burnt every year at Lourdes and there is a torchlight procession every night at 9pm from April to October in which thousands take part.

"The candles represent God's presence," the priest added. "The flickering flame His illuminating light. The white candles signify a divine pillar of cloud. They are a test of faith as they are very heavy!"

"The disabled and diseased and marginalised are in the majority here," said an English pilgrim.

He carried a two-litre plastic jerry can of complimentary cave water. "Pope John Paul II said Lourdes is the place where heaven and earth pursue a dialogue.

"Lourdes is very special. It has been blessed. Some come for adoration. Or consolation. Or confession. To call for intercession or to renew their baptismal vows. Or to remember the Beatitudes. Others just to observe. Hope and fraternity are palpable here. Kindness too. You find yourself in a sea of people devoted to the service of others."

This year sees the 150th anniversary of the first apparition, when, on February 11, 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous while she was collecting firewood.

Seventeen apparitions of 'Aquero' (the Lady) followed until July 16 of that year.

On the new Jubilee Walk you see Bernadette's birthplace and "le cachot" (or dungeon) in the Rue Petits-Fosses where she lived in poverty after her father lost his mill business, and cholera struck the town.

You can also visit the church where she received her first Communion and the nearby village of Bartres where she tended sheep.

To mark the anniversary, events will be held throughout the year. Until March 28 there will be 12 missions including a Mission for Peace, for Inter-Religious Dialogue and For Young People.

Bernadette described her apparition as "uno petito damizelo" (a young girl).

At first she mistook it for a demonic apparition thinking it a 'revenant' or soul returning from purgatory.

The apparition did not speak until the third appearance and in Occitan, the local patois.

It suggested she used a lighted candle for protection, thus the torchlight procession.

The small figure in the flowing white robe with roses on her feet told Bernadette to build chapels and kiss the ground as penance.

On her ninth visitation she showed the shepherd girl a miraculous spring.

Lourdes doesn't have a local monopoly on supernatural events. In Betharram, near Lourdes, some shepherds saw a vision of a ray of light which guided them to a statue of the Virgin Mary.

In the early 16th century, a 12-year-old shepherdess named Angleze de Sagazan claimed to see a vision near a spring at Garaison. Her story is strikingly similar to that of Bernadette. She was pious but illiterate, but successfully convinced authorities that her vision was genuine. There are also several similarities between the apparition at La Salette near Grenade, predating Lourdes by 11 years.

Bernadette's apparitions were not recognised until 1862.

The statue of Notre Dame de Lourdes was installed in the Massabeille (meaning old rock) grotto two years later. Bernadette died in Nevers convent in 1879 and was canonised in 1933. Exhumed three times, her body was found to be "incorrupt".

There have been over 7,000 'cures' claimed by visitors to Lourdes, but only 68 are recognised by the Lourdes Medical Bureau - a group of theologians and doctors charged with investigating claims since 1905.

One famous case is that of Liverpudlian John Traynor, who was paralysed fighting in the Dardenelles but walked again after visiting Lourdes to take the waters.

The last recorded miracle, involving Italian Anna Santianello in 1952, was only deemed "inexplicable" in 2005.

On my visit, I saw thousands continued to process towards the cave. Three boy Scouts carried a giant candle. Then, as the processions of pilgrims moved another few yards, another voice whispered: "O Mary, our mother, we come to this place where you who are sinless appeared full of grace."

A teenage boy helping a disabled girl looked around. "You learn a lot from coming to Lourdes," he said. "One hundred countries are represented here every day. It's a transfiguring place. You can't help be moved and touched. Whatever your beliefs, you feel belief."

GETTING THERE

• We travelled with the French Government Tourist Office, which offers further information to visitors at www.franceguide.com. For events in Lourdes in 2008, see www.lourdes2008.com
• We flew with easyJet, which flies into Toulouse from Bristol and Gatwick from £24.99 one-way (incl taxes), returns from £46.04. Bookings on www.easyJet.com
• We stayed at the four-star luxe Grand Hotel de la Grotte at 66 Rue de la Grotte, 65100 Lourdes. Reservations and rates: 00 33 562 945 887 or www.hotel-grotte.com
• UK operators of short breaks to the Lourdes area include VFB Holidays, which offers two-night half-board breaks at a three-star hotel within a dozen miles of Lourdes, incl flights and car hire, from £202 per person. Reservations: 01452 716842.

• For pilgrimages, UK operators include Tangney Tours on 0800 917 3572 or at www.tangney-tours.com