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Lourdes: A Pilgrimage in Retrospect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2024

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A First impression of Lourdes is never worth recording. The aeroplane touches down at Tarbes, the little pilgrimage climbs into a coach, the tarmac unrolls in all the secular splendour of a large main road. Arrival by train is only a more congested version of arrival by train at any crowded spa. And from either approach the city of Lourdes at first glance has nothing particularly striking to offer.

The pilgrim, in fact, must give himself time. Above all, he must draw no rapid conclusion, whether favourable or not. Lourdes is like a promontory thrust into the familiar dimensions of time and space and it is fitting to explore it slowly and with an awe appropriate to the act of investigation.

In the city itself incongruities abound. The air seems to rain medals, rosaries, postcards. Shops have unexpectedly nationalistic names, like ‘St Lawrence O’Toole’. Little notices on the counter announce Ici on cause wallon and great bazaars, like some reverential Woolworth’s, overflow with excellent people buying containers in plastic for Lourdes water, and tiny statuettes brightened with phosphorescent paint.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1958 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers