Lourdes
Up until 1858, Lourdes was a quiet, modest, sleepy county-town with a
population of only some 4,000 inhabitants. The castle was occupied by
an infantry garrison. The town was a place people passed through on
their way to the waters at Barèges, Cauterets,
Luz-Saint-Sauveur and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, and for the first
mountaineers on their way to Gavarnie, when the events which were to
change its history took place. On 11
February 1858,
a 14-year-old local girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed a beautiful
lady appeared to her in the remote Grotto of Massabielle. The
lady later identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception" and the faithful
believe her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary. The lady appeared 18
times, and by 1859 thousands of pilgrims were visiting Lourdes. A
statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was erected at the site in 1864. See Our Lady of Lourdes for more details on
the apparitions.
Since the apparitions, Lourdes has become one of the world's leading
Catholic Marian shrines and the number of visitors
grows each year. It has such an important place within the Roman Catholic church, that Pope John Paul II visited the shrine
twice on 15th August 1983 and 14th-15th August 2004. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI authorized special indulgences
to mark the 150th anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes.[2]
St Margaret
The group takes it name from St Margaret Of Scotland, the only patron
saint outside of France to have a statue located within the sanctury.
Margaret was canonised
in 1251 by Pope Innocent IV on account of her
personal holiness and fidelity to the Church. She would personally serve
orphans and the poor every day before she herself would eat, and would
rise at midnight to attend church services every night. The Roman Catholic Church formerly marked the
feast of Saint Margaret of Scotland on 10
June, but the date was transferred to 16 November, the actual day of her death,
in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints.[1] Queen Margaret University (founded in
1875), Queen Margaret Union, Queen Margaret
Hospital (just outside Dunfermline),
North Queensferry, South Queensferry, Queen Margaret Academy (Ayr) and several
streets in Dunfermline
are named after her.