Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

‘So Many Extraordinary Things to Tell’: Letters from Lourdes, 1858

1995; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 46; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0022046900017759

1469-7637

Thérèse Taylor,

Diverse Cultural and Historical Studies

In 1858 Lourdes was the site of a famous series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous (1844–79). These visions became the basis of one of the major religious shrines of the contemporary world. The miraculous spring at the Grotto of Lourdes is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims every year and the story of St Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes has been thoroughly disseminated throughout the Catholic world. Despite the fame of Lourdes, and despite the dramatic foundation of the shrine during the mid nineteenth century, the events at Lourdes have received relatively little attention from historians. A scholarly consideration of Lourdes is included in Thomas Kselman's Miracles and prophecies in nineteenth-century France . This book initiated research into several neglected fields and until it appeared writers who made mention of Lourdes, such as Marina Warner and Judith Devlin, were obliged to rely upon works of Catholic history. The apparitions at Lourdes and the life of Bernadette have given rise to a vast devotional literature, some of which has been carefully researched, but it serves the purposes of hagiography rather than historical enquiry. A voluminous quantity of contemporary documents relevant to these events is in existence in the archives of both Church and State, and some collections of these primary sources have been published.