Lourdes: Everything you need to know about Pope Leo XIV’s visit
Pope Leo XIV prepares for landmark pilgrimage to Lourdes
Poinews.com – Pope Leo XIV will travel to Lourdes on Saturday, bringing the Vatican’s leader back to one of Catholicism’s most important pilgrimage destinations for the first time in nearly two decades. The visit forms part of his official trip to France and is expected to draw exceptionally large crowds to the small Pyrenean town near the Spanish border.
Lourdes, home to roughly 13,000 people, receives millions of visitors each year because of its association with Bernadette Soubirous and the Marian apparitions she described in 1858. The pope’s programme combines public worship at the shrine with a private meeting that reflects the continuing impact of the Church’s abuse crisis in France.
A return by a pope after 18 years
Leo XIV will be the first pope to visit Lourdes since Benedict XVI travelled there in September 2008. That journey marked 150 years since Bernadette’s reported visions in the Massabielle grotto, the site that became the centre of the sanctuary.
After two days in Paris, the pope is scheduled to arrive at Tarbes Lourdes Pyrénées airport on Saturday evening. His first major event in Lourdes will be a Mass at the Massabielle grotto, where pilgrims traditionally gather for prayer, reflection and access to the spring linked to Bernadette’s testimony.
Authorities expect nearly 200,000 people to come to Lourdes over two days. Around 150,000 people have registered for celebrations at the shrine, underlining both the scale of the papal visit and the logistical pressure it will place on the town.
The story behind the Lourdes sanctuary
Lourdes became known internationally after Bernadette Soubirous, a girl from a poor family, said she saw 18 apparitions of a woman dressed in white between February and July 1858. The encounters were said to have taken place at the Massabielle grotto, close to the town.
For believers, a defining moment came during the ninth apparition. Bernadette said she heard an instruction that has remained central to the site’s devotional life:
“Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there.”
The Catholic Church formally recognised the apparitions in 1862 as appearances of the Virgin Mary. A shrine was subsequently established at the grotto, and Lourdes developed into a destination for people seeking spiritual renewal, prayer and healing.
Today, it welcomes about three million pilgrims annually. The town hall ranks Lourdes as the world’s fourth most visited Catholic pilgrimage location, following the Vatican, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil.
The town’s accommodation capacity illustrates how closely its economy and daily life are tied to pilgrimage. Lourdes has almost 10,000 hotel rooms and approximately 21,200 beds despite its relatively small permanent population. During the pope’s visit, however, affordable rooms have become difficult to find, with some hotels charging more than €2,000 a night as demand surges.
A visit amid renewed religious interest
The papal journey comes as baptism figures in France have increased substantially. Over the last five years, adult baptisms have risen by 28%, while baptisms among teenagers have grown by 10%.
In 2026, France recorded 21,386 baptisms. That total is more than three times the number registered a decade earlier. The figures give Leo XIV’s visit added significance for Catholics who see Lourdes not only as a historic sanctuary, but also as a living place of worship for people entering or returning to the faith.
For many visitors, the occasion will be shaped by a familiar rhythm of pilgrimage: travelling to the grotto, attending Mass, joining prayer services and sharing the experience with people from other countries. The expected turnout means that Lourdes will briefly become the focal point of French Catholic life on a scale rarely seen outside major religious celebrations.
Private meeting with abuse survivors
Alongside the public ceremonies, Leo XIV is expected to meet privately with seven survivors of sexual abuse. The planned conversation comes at a particularly difficult moment for the Catholic Church in France, where the consequences of past abuse remain a defining challenge.
In 2021, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church estimated that 216,000 minors were abused by priests or members of religious orders between 1950 and 2020. The estimate reached about 330,000 when abuse involving laypeople working in Church-related institutions was included.
The private meeting gives the Lourdes visit a dimension that extends beyond pilgrimage and ceremony. It places the pope’s presence at a shrine associated with consolation and healing alongside the unresolved need for accountability, recognition and support for survivors.
As Leo XIV arrives, Lourdes will carry several meanings at once: a destination rooted in a 19th-century religious story, a town equipped to host vast pilgrim crowds, and a setting for a papal visit shaped by both renewed interest in baptism and the Church’s painful reckoning with abuse.
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