It was on this day in 1858 that the 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous, a peasant girl in Lourdes, saw a lady in a grotto near the river Gave, at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains in France. Over the next several months, Bernadette encountered the Lady many times. During one of these apparitions, the Lady directed Bernadette to drink from the fountain. But there was no fountain there—only the river. At the Lady’s command, Bernadette began to dig in the ground near the grotto, and a spring of water began to flow. Immediately, numerous miraculous healings took place for those who bathed in or drank the water of the spring. Only later did the Lady reveal to Bernadette who she was, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Today, Lourdes is one of the most popular pilgrimage places in the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to the little town, to drink of the water and to feel close to the Virgin and to her Son, Jesus Christ, healer of body and soul.