The Our Lady of Lourdes Novena

The Our Lady of Lourdes Novena is a nine-day Catholic prayer through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary under her Lourdes apparitions. For the broader Catholic context, see Our Lady of Lourdes.

The novena is prayed for physical healing (the Lourdes spring has been the site of approximately seventy formally recognized miraculous healings), for spiritual conversion, and for the protection of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in any serious Catholic need.

Origin and historical development

In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to the fourteen-year-old Saint Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, France. On March 25 of that year, during the sixteenth apparition, the Lady identified herself: "I am the Immaculate Conception." The phrase confirmed the dogma that Pope Pius IX had defined four years earlier.

The novena form draws from the requests the Blessed Virgin made of Bernadette (penance, prayer for sinners, the building of a chapel) and from the Marian apparition narrative recorded in the Acta of the canonical commission of Tarbes (1862).

Structure of the novena

Each day of the novena meditates on one Marian theme drawn from the Lourdes apparitions: the Immaculate Conception, penance and repentance, prayer for sinners, the miraculous spring, healing, the kindness of the Lady, the obedience of Bernadette, the building of the shrine, and the universal Marian invitation.

When the novena is prayed

The traditional dates of the novena are February 2 through February 10, ending on the eve of the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11). The novena may also be prayed at any time of year for serious personal needs, particularly for healing.

Theological foundation

The Lourdes apparitions are a confirmed Catholic private revelation, approved by the Bishop of Tarbes on January 18, 1862. Pope Saint Pius X extended the feast to the universal Catholic Church in 1907 and fixed its date on February 11. Pope Saint John Paul II in 1992 instituted the World Day of the Sick on the same date, connecting the Lourdes apparitions explicitly to the Catholic Church's ministry to the sick.

For the broader Catholic theology of Marian intercession, see Why do Catholics pray to Mary?.

Pairing with other prayers

The novena pairs naturally with the Holy Rosary (Bernadette held a rosary during every apparition), the Hail Mary, and the Memorare. For the Catholic devotion to the Immaculate Conception, see the related learn page and the Immaculate Conception Novena.

Sources

The principal sources are Bernadette Soubirous's own depositions to the canonical commission (1858-1860), the Acta of the commission of Tarbes (1862), and Pope Saint John Paul II's address on the World Day of the Sick (1992). The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes maintains the standard pilgrimage texts.