Today is the 160th Anniversary of first apparition of Our Lady in Lourdes. On the morning Thursday of February 11th, 1858, Immaculate Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. It was at the grotto of Massabielle (at Lourdes) in France.
On the morning Thursday of February 11th, 1858, when the family awoke in the damp and miserable Cachot there was no more firewood for the fire and Bernadette pleaded with her mother to be allowed to find some new firewood. Eventually her mother consented, although she as always was concerned for her daughter and whether she would suffer another asthma attack. Bernadette and her sister, Toinette, and a friend, Jeanne Abadie, were told to fetch some firewood for the fire. It was while gathering firewood with her sister and a friend, near the grotto of Massabielle, that she would have her first vision.
As St. Bernadette herself says: “The first time I went to the grotto, was Thursday, 11th February, 1858. I went to gather firewood with two other little girls (Toinette, her sister, and their friend Jeanne Abadie). When we got to the mill (of Savy), I asked the other two if they would like to see where the water of the mill joins the River Gave. They said ‘Yes.’ From there we followed the canal. When we arrived there (at the foot of the rock of Massabielle) we found ourselves before a grotto.”
