Lauren Woodrell on Approved Miracles of Lourdes

"From February 11 to July 16, 1858, Saint Bernadette Soubirous met the Blessed Virgin Mary eighteen times at the Grotto at Lourdes, France. Despite the Church's and town's growing hesitation surrounding the Grotto's apparitions and cures, an ecclesiastical committee declared the apparition as authentic in 1860. 

"The Grotto of Lourdes has since become a shrine that receives approximately four million pilgrimages with hundreds of exceptional healings each year. As a result, the Lourdes Medical Bureau was instituted in 1905 to render a judgment that a particular cure was near-instantaneous, efficacious throughout the remainder of life, and, in all other ways, scientifically inexplicable. 

"Currently, only seventy cases have been recognized as 'miraculous' according to the standards of the Bureau. While this does not excuse all other accounts as not miraculous by other standards, it does mean that only seventy cases are scientifically unexplainable."

In a recent commentary, Lauren Woodrell, editor at Magis Center, reflected on "three miracles worth learning about as we approach 164 years since the first apparition."

To access Ms. Woodrell's complete post, please visit:

Magis Center: 3 Miracles of Lourdes (Approved and Scientifically Validated) (10 FEB 22)