Today the Church celebrates Saint Mary under the title of Lourdes, coinciding with the date of the beginning of a series of 18 appearances (1858) to a poor and illiterate teenager of 14 years, Saint Bernadette de Soubirous (1844-1879). This episode brings together the beautiful and typical features of the performances of the Mother of God: predilection for small and humble souls, tenderness and charm in the treatment (the Virgin spoke to Bernadette in Gascon language), serene and urgent call to penance and prayer for the sinners ...

Lourdes also has an element of special theological relevance: three years earlier the dogma of the "Immaculate Conception" had been proclaimed. This was, precisely, the name that the Lady revealed to Bernadette, even though the seer did not yet know that expression. Mariology, to a large extent, has advanced on the basis of the "sensus fidei Populi Dei". That is to say, the Marian dogmas of faith have been imposed almost by "popular acclamation".

-In those times of agnostic naturalism, Santa Maria highlighted the primacy of Grace and Providence in the lives of men. Lourdes will always be a reminder of that "do what He tells you".