One day while collecting firewood, Our Lady appeared to Bernadette as she stood in front of a cave near a flowing river. Bernadette told her parents who did not believe her at first. The lovely Lady appeared again and again, instructing Bernadette to dig and water began to flow. The spring was cool and sick people who bathed in it were often made well. Our Lady also told Bernadette to "build her a great church and tell people to pray and do penance and walk in procession."

     Because of these things, in about 1858, a shrine was built which today is visited by two million people every year. The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the great pilgrimage centers in the world.