It is said that helping out at Lourdes may change your life. Indeed, this line was quoted at a ceremony for “first-timers” by the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Canadian lawyer Fra’ John Dunlap, inside the hangar-like Église Sainte-Bernadette. This vast modern church was built on the riverside spot where 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous received her first apparition of Our Lady, on 11 February 1858.
Did my first time helping out at Lourdes change me? In a word, yes. The experience is unique. As Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem, our chaplain, said to the British Order of Malta Association group of around 50 helpers, aged from around 20 to 80: “I expect we all come with prayer intentions asking for Blessed Mary’s miraculous help, whatever our needs and struggles. But we are also something of a miracle, simply by being here.”
Within moments of our chartered plane arriving at Pau airport, I was marshalled into immediate action as a novice member of my team. All helpers are assigned into groups who work a rigorous schedule around the clock, helping the infirm, sick and disabled (known as <em>malades</em> or “hospital pilgrims”). “Will all Team 3 members exit the plane immediately and head towards the first bus heading to the Accueil,” came the announcement. The Accueil Notre-Dame is the modern hospital that houses thousands of pilgrims who come to Lourdes every year.
There was no time to change into our Lourdes uniforms or have any supper, let along check into a hotel. Less than 40 minutes later, I was in the hospital and assigned a “buddy”: Lourdes veteran Graham Hutton, former chairman of Aid to the Church in Need and deputy chairman of the Orders of Saint John Care Trust. Graham, still in his jeans, quickly showed me the ropes; soon we were unpacking the suitcase of a paraplegic guest.
We helped him wash, all the while chatting away merrily and learning about his previous experiences in Lourdes. Through the hospital window we could see a golden, candlelit procession of thousands winding their way towards the Basilica of the Holy Rosary. Finally, Graham knelt on the bathroom floor and gently washed the guest’s feet with soapy water, and I dried them with a towel. Then we got him into his pyjamas and made sure his fluffy duck teddy – which never left his side – was tucked into the bed with him.
Our shift was a relatively easy assignment. More experienced volunteers with nursing experience used hoists to get their pilgrims into bed (this can be a dangerous business and requires medical training). After about an hour and a half, Graham and I were given a small packed meal of crisps, yoghurt, an apple and a small round canned tin of delicious foie gras with a roll – which I certainly wasn’t expecting.
By then it was 10pm, and having been up since 5am, all I could think of was heading to bed at the Hôtel d’Irlande, where my wife and I were billeted. It turned out that the current owners had also operated the hotel as the local French resistance HQ during the Second World War, while the Gestapo high command stayed in the more up-market Hôtel La Solitude, overlooking the River Pau.
“I’m off to bed,” I said, as we headed out of the Accueil. “Let’s have a pit stop at the Bronx,” replied Graham. “See who’s there.”
“The Café des Brancardiers [to give it its proper name] has been the preferred watering hole for longer than most people can remember,” says the Red Book, the official daily manual issued to all helpers. “Nothing at the Bronx ever changes (except the prices).”
Lourdes is well worth a visit even if one is not part of an official pilgrimage group. Following St Bernadette’s canonisation in 1933 by Pope Pius XI, Lourdes is now one of the most visited papal-approved pilgrimage shrines of the world, attracting over five million pilgrims a year. Inevitably, the town has no shortage of kitsch souvenir shops, but the pretty local character of the town survives as well.
The Americans also made their presence felt during my stay. As I stepped off our own plane onto the tarmac, it was difficult not to notice two huge jumbo jets parked up – each with a capacity of over 500 passengers and holds filled with a fleet of motorised wheelchairs, disability and medical equipment. The US contingent even had their own security guards.
They brought an army of over 400 knights, dames, auxiliaries and volunteers – with some wearing Order of Malta baseball caps rather than the French-style black berets favoured by the British. I wore my beret – bought in a local shop – for the first time for the British team photograph. “Where is your string of onions?” a veteran confrère joked. The male helpers also wear black boilersuits – a hangover from when former tank officers returned to Lourdes after the war wearing theirs.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the day is wheeling pilgrims along the river path in special blue voitures to the famous Lourdes baths. I wasn’t expecting such a range of hospital pilgrims, but not all guests are seriously disabled or in need of a hospital bed. Some of the elderly live in care homes and otherwise have no opportunity to go away or be looked after. Others’ infirmities are hidden. “They could have mental-health issues or be recovering from cancer,” I was advised. “You often don’t really know what is wrong with them, or their needs.”
Long gone are the days when pilgrims would bathe in the freezing water of the grotto hoping for a cure – some 2,000 miracle cures have been reported so far. During Covid, it was felt that the baths were too much of a health risk, so now you can only get splashed with the water while you say a prayer to our Lady of Lourdes. Also gone are the days when used bandages used to be burned in the grotto area.
Now the area of the old caves has been turned into a charming, flowery promenade with open-air Masses taking place. Our pilgrimage group was greatly blessed by having Fr Gwilym Evans FSSP, with his fine Welsh tenor voice. We therefore had beautifully sung Latin during several of the Masses, with the young priest carrying around what looked like a portable karaoke machine.
Another highlight was the opportunity to go to confession in the vast underground Basilica of Pius X. It was consecrated in 1958 by Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, who would become Pope John XXIII a few months later; with a capacity for over 25,000 people, the brutalist church resembles an enormous indoor motor-drome with slanting floors, like the old Brooklands race track.
A startling moment came when a hospital pilgrim who was unable to speak without a voice box failed to turn down his volume. Those in the queue suddenly heard a robotic synthesised voice say: “Bless me, Father…”. Thankfully the situation was quickly put right before the seal was broken and any sins publicly announced.
I found the military-like schedule of my pilgrimage both welcome and deeply rewarding. To live for a few days without having to make any decisions for oneself, simply to serve others rather than worrying about emails or office decisions was a form of joy. Friendships are quickly forged with the atmosphere of a school trip abroad, and useful advice is given by Lourdes veterans to novices. “The water here can cause indigestion,” warned one older Scottish dame of Malta. “Eat the prunes at breakfast.”
To follow a strict daily routine felt like a holiday for the soul. Led by Lady Celestria Hales, the president of the British Association of the Order of Malta, our small British army of volunteers had orders to rise at 6.30am and eat at appointed times with a daily table d’hôte menu at the hotel that involved no choice. It was a kind of bliss.
As Fr Stephen told us: “Think about it: for one week a year, the values of the world are turned upside down, and what a privilege to be part of it. For in Lourdes, the first are last, and the last first. But unlike the utopias of our own creation, often ending in disaster, here we are all winners.”
<strong><strong>This article appears in the September 2024 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a></strong></strong>.
