Lourdes water
Eau de Lourdes
- Known today as
- Water from the spring in the grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes, uncovered by Bernadette Soubirous on 25 February 1858 during the apparitions she reported.
- Kind
- Sacramental, in 1 older authority
- Earliest authority here
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914)
Revised October 1, 2026: An authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 28, 2026.
Lourdes water: what was it used for?
Drunk and bathed in by pilgrims, and carried away in bottles, often shaped as the Virgin, to the sick at home.
Lourdes water: what does modern science say?
Some millions of pilgrims visit each year; analysis finds ordinary spring water.
What Medicine Makes of It
- The Cures at LourdesSeven thousand claims, seventy miracles, and the criteria of Benedict XIV.
Lourdes water: what lore surrounds it?
Cures reported at Lourdes have been examined by a medical bureau since 1883; the Church has recognized about seventy as miraculous.
Lourdes water: what did the older authorities say?
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Catholic Encyclopedia relates that the apparition “one day told her to drink of a mysterious fountain, in the grotto itself, the existence of which was unknown, and of which there was no sign, but which immediately gushed forth.” Its author counted 3,962 recoveries in the first half-century and insists that the water itself is nothing: “it was then declared by an eminent chemist officially appointed to make the analysis and his statement has since been corroborated, that the water contains no curative properties of a natural character,” and “many ailing ones are cured without ever bathing in the basins of the Grotto; this decides the question.” The Bureau des Constatations Médicales “is free to all physicians, whatever their nationality or religious belief.”
Sources
- Harris, R. (1999). Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age. London: Allen Lane. Verified against its record · doi:10.1017/s002842890002045x
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914), “Lourdes, Notre-Dame de.” newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm Standard reference work
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 2 cited: 1 verified against its record, 1 standard reference work.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 28, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Lourdes water.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lourdes-water.
- MLA
“Lourdes water.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lourdes-water. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Lourdes water. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lourdes-water
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See Also
Also in The Catholic Encyclopedia
The Miraculous Medal in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Letters from Heaven in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Oil of catechumens in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Holy wells in The Catholic Encyclopedia · everything The Catholic Encyclopedia names →
Nearby in the alphabet
Lovage (of the carrot family) · Long pepper (The catkin-like fruit of Piper longum) · Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) · Lodestone (naturally magnetic iron ore) · Madder (Rubia tinctorum) · Livid pinkgill (of broadleaf woods) · Madonna lily (Lilium candidum) · Liverwort, or hepatica (Hepatica nobilis (syn)
Historical description, not medical advice.