The Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette with the Rosary in her hand. The Rosary Basilica, in the form of a Greek cross recounts, in its three Roman-Byzantine arches, the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the life of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin. These mosaic walls of the Basilica are a real opportunity of catechesis. The walkway invites the pilgrim to meditate on the 15 decades of the Rosary. The mosaic of the vaulted ceiling calls Christians to turn to the Blessed Virgin and to carry out, like her "a pilgrimage of faith". The Basilica was designed by the architect Leopold Hardy and built between 1883 and 1889. It was consecrated in 1901. This Basilica has a capacity of 1,500.   On Thursday 25th February 1857, Bernadette explained; "Aquéro" ("that thing there" the word in local dialect that Bernadette used for the Lady) told me "go drink at the spring and wash yourself there." Not seeing any water nearby, I went to the cave. But she made a sign to me, with her finger, to go underneath the rock. There I found a little muddy water, so little that I had difficulty in getting it into the hollow of my hand. Three times I threw it away because it was so dirty. I was only able to draw it up the fourth time."

I like Lourdes in the rain. It has an atmosphere of a world beyond, a feeling of paradise. All is quiet and peaceful like it would be in a desert. The pilgrims attend Mass at 8.00am at the Grotto in the rain. There is a forest of umbrellas that seems to form a patchwork tent raised in a hurry, a mosaic of flesh and blood. It struck me that Lourdes is like that – a mosaic of humanity.