The Lourdes pilgrimage : encyclical of His Holiness Pope Pius XII issued on the centenary of the app


1!URDES PILGRIMAGE

Encyclical of

His Holiness Pope Pius XII

Issued on the Centenary of the

Apparitions of the

Blessed Virgin at Lourdes

July 2, 1957

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ENCYCLICAL LETTER
OF HIS HOLINESS

PIUS XII
BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE

POPE
ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIRST CENTENARY

OF THE APPARITIONS OF THE
BLESSED VIRGIN AT LOURDES

TO Our beloved sons, Achille Cardinal Lienart, Bishopof Lille ; Pierre Cardinal Gerlier, Archbishop of Lyon,
Clement Cardinal Reques, Archbishop of Rennes

;

Maurice Cardinal Feltin, Archbishop of Paris ; Georges
Cardinal Grente, Archbishop-Bishop of Le Mans, and to all
Our venerable brothers, the Archbishops and Bishops of
France in peace and communion with the Apostolic See.
Most beloved sons and venerable brethren, greetings and
apostolic benediction

:

1.

The Lourdes pilgrimage, which We had the pleasure of
making when We went to preside in the name of Our
predecessor Pius XI at the Eucharistic and Marian cele-
brations closing the Jubilee of the Redemption, left in Our
soul deep and sweet memories.

2.

It is therefore particularly agreeable to Us to learn that,
on the initiative of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, the
Marian city is getting ready to celebrate with fitting splen-
dor the centenary of the apparitions of the Immaculate
Virgin at the Massabielle grotto, and that an international
committee has even been constituted for this purpose under
the presidency of the Most Eminent Cardinal Eugene Tis-
serant. Dean of the Sacred College.

3.

We wish to join you, beloved sons and venerable breth-
ren, in thanking God for the signal favor granted to your
country, and for so many graces lavished on the multitude
of pilgrims during the past century.

3



4. We wish also to invite all Our sons to renew, in this
jubilee year, their confident and generous piety toward her
who, according to the words of St. Pius X, deigned to estab-
lish at Lourdes “the seat of her immense kindness” (Letter,
July 12, 1914, A.A.S. VI, 1914, Lp. 376).

5. Every Christian land is a Marian land, and there is no
people who have been redeemed in the blood of Christ who
do not like to proclaim Mary as their Mother and their
Patron.

6. This truth stands out in bold relief when one recalls the
history of France. The cult of the Mother of God dates
back to the origins of that country’s evangelization. Among
the most ancient of Marian shrines, Chartres still attracts
a great number of pilgrims and thousands of young people.

7. The Middle Ages which sang the glory of Mary and her
mysteries, especially with St. Bernard, saw the marvelous
flowering of your cathedrals dedicated to Our Lady: Le
Puy, Rheims, Amiens, Paris and so many others.

8. They announce from afar with their slender spires this
glory of the Immaculate. They make it shine in the pure
light of their stained glass windows and the harmonious
beauty of their statues.

9. They bear witness especially to the faith of a people who
raised themselves in one magnificent impulse to erect in
the sky of France the permanent homage of their Marian
piety.

10. In cities and in the country, on the tops of hills or
dominating the sea, sanctuaries consecrated to Mary—^hum-
ble chapels or magnificent basilicas—covered the country
little by little with their protective shadow.

11. Princes and shepherds, numberless faithful have come
to these shrines throughout the centuries to the holy Virgin,
whom they have saluted with the most expressive titles of
their confidence or of their gratitude. Here Notre Dame de
Misericorde (Our Lady of Mercy), Toute Aide (All Help),
Bon Secours (Good Help) is invoked; there, the pilgrim
seeks refuge near Notre Dame de la (larde (Our Lady of
Care), de Pitie (of Pity), and de Consolation (of Consola-
tion). Elsewhere, the pilgrim’s prayer rises to Notre Dame
de Lumiere (Our Lady of Light), de Paix (of Peace), de
Joie (of Joy) or d’Esperance (of Hope) ; or again to implore

4



the intercession of Notre Dame des Vertues (Our Lady of
Virtues), des Miracles (of Miracles), or des Victoires (of
Victories). It is an admirable litany of invocations, the
never-ending enumeration of which tells, from province to
province, the benefits which the Mother of God lavished on
the land of France throughout the ages.

12. The nineteenth century was to become, after the storm
of the Revolution, in many ways the century of Marian
favors.

13. To mention only one fact, who has not today heard of
the Miraculous Medal? Revealed in the very heart of the
French capital to a humble daughter of St. Vincent de Paul
whom We had the joy to inscribe in the catalogue of saints,
this medal which bears the effigy of “Mary conceived with-
out sin” has spread its spiritual and material wonders
everywhere.

14. A few years later, from February 11 to July 16, 1858, it
pleased the Blessed Virgin Mary, as a new favor, to miani-
fest herself in the land of the Pyrenees to a pious and pure
child born of a poor, hard-working, Christian family.

15. “She came to Bernadette,” We once said, “she made
her her confidante, the collaboratrix, the instrument of her
maternal tenderness and of the merciful power of her Son,
to restore the world in Christ through a new and incom-
parable effusion of the redemption.” (Discourse, April 28,
1935, at Lourdes: Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, Discourses
and Panegyrics, 2d ed. Vatican, 1956, p. 435).

16. The events which then took place at Lourdes, the spirit-
ual proportions of which one measures better today, are
well known to you.

17. You know, beloved sons and venerable brethren, under
what astonishing conditions the voice of that child, the
messenger of the Immaculate, imposed itself on the world in
spite of ridicule, doubt and opposition.

18. You know the steadfastness and purity of the testi-
mony, which the episcopal authority judged with wisdom
and passed upon as early as 1862.

19. Even then crowds flocked to the sanctuary, and they
have not ceased to surge into the grotto of the apparitions

5



toward the miraculous spring and the shrine erected at
Mary's request.

20. It is the moving cortege of the humble, the sick and
the afflicted.

21. It is the impressive pilgrimage of thousands of faithful
from one diocese or one nation. It is the discreet suppli-
cation of a troubled soul seeking truth.

22. “Never,” We once said, “has one seen such a procession
of suffering in one spot on earth, never such a radiance of
peace, serenity and joy!” (ibid. p. 437).

23. Never, We might add, will one know fuller the total of
the benefits which the world owes to the helping Virgin!
“0 specus felix, decorate divae Matris aspectu! Veneranda
rupes, unde vitales scatuere pleno gurgite lymphae!” (0
honored cave, by Mary’s smile adorned! 0 hallowed rock,
whence spring the living waters of a gushing stream ! Office
of the feast of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes,
hymn of II vespers.)

24. These one hundred years of Marian cult, furthermore,
have in some manner woven close bonds between the See
of Peter and the Shrine of the Pyrenees, which it pleases
Us to recognize.

25. Did the Virgin Mary herself desire this bond? “That
which in Rome through his infallible magisterium the Sov-
ereign Pontiff defined, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of
God, blessed among all women, wanted to confirm by her
own lips, it seems, when shortly afterward she manifested
herself by a famous apparition at the grotto of Massa-
bielle. . . .” (Decree De Tuto for the canonization of St.
Bernadette, July 2, 1933. A.A.S. XXV, 1933, p. 377).

26. Certainly the infallible word of the Roman Pontiff, the
authentic interpreter of revealed truth, needed no heavenly
confirmation to impose itself upon the belief of the faithful.
But with what emotion and gratitude did the Christian
people and its pastors receive from the lips of Bernadette
this answer which came from heaven : “I am the Immacu-
late Conception.”

27. It is therefore not surprising that it should have pleased
Our predecessors to multiply their favor toward this sanc-
tuary.

6



28. As early as 1869, Pius IX of holy memory, rejoiced
that the obstacles created against Lourdes by the malice of
men “rendered the more strong and evident the clarity of
the fact” (Letter, Sept. 4, 1869, to Henri Lasserre: Vatican
Secret Archives, Latin Letters, 1869, no. 388, p. 695).

29. And, strengthened by this assurance, he lavished spir-
itual benefits upon the newly erected church and crowned
the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes.

.

30. Leo XIII in 1892 granted Proper Office and the Mass
of the feast “The Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Immaculate” which his successor was a short time later to
extend to the universal Church.

31. The ancient appeal of the Scriptures was from that time
on to have new application : “Arise, my beloved, my beau-
tiful one, and come : 0 my dove in the clefts of the rock, in
the secret recesses of the cliff. . . .” (Cant. 2 ; 13-14; Gradual
of the Mass of the feast of the Apparitions).

32. Toward the end of his life, the great pontiff wanted to
inaugurate and bless the reproduction of the grotto of
Massabielle in the Vatican gardens, and in those same days
his voice rose to the Virgin of Lourdes in an ardent and
trusting prayer

:

33. “May it be that in her power the Virgin Mother, who
once cooperated through her love with the birth of the
faithful in the Church, may she now return the tranquillity
of peace to troubled souls

;
may she hasten, finally, the return

of Jesus Christ in private and public life” (Brief, Sept. 8,
1901: Acts of Leo XIII, vol. XXI, p. 159-160).

34. The fiftieth anniversary of the definition of the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin gave St.
Pius X occasion to bear witness in a solemn document to
the historic connection between this act of the teaching
authority of the Church and the apparitions of Lourdes

:

35. “Pius IX had hardly defined it to be of Catholic Faith
that Mary was from her very origin exempt from sin, when
the Virgin herself began operating wonders at Lourdes”
(Ency. Letter Ad diem ilium. Jubilee of the Immaculate
Conception, Feb. 2, 1904: Acts of Pius X, vol. I, p. 149).

7



36. Soon afterward he created the episcopal title of Lourdes,
attached it to that of Tarbes, and signed the introduction of
the cause for the beatification of Bernadette.

37. It was especially reserved to this great Pope of the
Eucharist to underline and favor the admirable conjunction
which exists in Lourdes between the Eucharistic cult and
Marian intercession.

38. “Piety toward the Mother of God,” he noted, “was the
source of the flowering there of a remarkable and ardent
piety toward Christ Our Lord” (Letter, July 12, 1914:
A.A.8f.,VI, 1914, p. 377).

39. Could it have been otherwise? Everything in Mary
carries us to her Son, our only Savior, in anticipation of
Whose merits she was immaculate and full of grace. Every-
thing in Mary raises us to the praise of the adorable Trinity.

40. And so it was that Bernadette, praying her rosary
before the grotto, learned from the lips and expression of
the Holy Virgin how she should give glory to the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost

!

41. We are happy in this centenary to associate Ourselves
with this homage rendered by St. Pius X

:

42. “The unique glory of the sanctuary of Lourdes resides
in this fact, that peoples are attracted there from every-
where by Mary for the adoration of Jesus Christ in the
august sacrament, so that this sanctuary—at the same time
the center of Marian cult and the throne of the Eucharistic
mystery—surpasses in glory all others in the Catholic world,
it seems” (Brief, Apr. 25, 1911: Arch. Brev. Ap. Pius X,
an 1911, Div. Lib. IX, part 1, p. 337).

43. Benedict XV wanted to enrich this sanctuary, already
heaped with favors, with new and precious indulgence and,
if the tragic circumstances of his pontificate did not allow
him to multiply the public acts of his devotion, he neverthe-
less wanted to honor the Marian city by granting to its
bishop the privilege of the pallium at the place of the appari-

tions.

44. Pius XI, who had been to Lourdes himself as a pilgrim,
continued the work of Benedict XV. He had the joy of
raising to the altars the girl favored by the Virgin and who,

8



in the habit of the Congregation of Charity and Christian
Instruction, had become Sister Marie Bernard.

45. Did he not in turn verify, in a way, the promise made
by the Immaculate to young Bernadette that she would “be
happy not in this world, but in the next?”

46. From that time on, Nevers, which takes pride in keep-
ing the precious relics of Bernadette, has attracted a great
number of the Lourdes pilgrims who have wanted to learn
from her now to receive in the proper manner the message
of our day.

47. Soon the illustrious Pontiff, like his predecessors who
had honored the anniversary celebrations of the apparitions
by sending a legate, decided to close the Jubilee of the Re-
demption at the Grotto of Massabielle where, in his own
words, “the Immaculate Virgin Mary showed herself sev-
eral times to Blessed Bernadette Soubirous, and where with
kindness she exhorted all men to do penance in this very
place of the wondrous apparitions upon which she heaped
graces and wonders” (Brief, Jan. 11, 1933: Arch. Brev.
Ap. Pius XI, Ind. Perpet. p. 128)

.

48. In truth, Pius XI concluded, this sanctuary “is now
justly considered one of the principal Marian sanctuaries of
the world” (ibid.)*

49. How could We have refrained from adding Our voice to
this unanimous concert of praise?

50. We did so notably in Our Encyclical Fulgens Corona
(Marian Year) by recalling, after Our predecessors, that
“the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wanted to confirm through
a prodigy, it seems, the pronouncement which the Vicar on
earth of her Divine Son had just proclaimed with the ap-
plause of the entire Church” (Ency. Letter Fulgens Corona,
Sept. 8, 1953; A.A.S. XLV, 1953, p. 578).

51. May priests, attentive to her appeal, dare to preach the
great truths of salvation without fear.

52. There can be no lasting renewal, in fact, unless based
on the unbreakable principles of faith, and it is up to the
priests to form the consciences of Christian peoples.

53. Just like the Immaculate who, compassionate for our
miseries but foreseeing our real needs, came to men to

9



remind them of the essential and austere steps of religious
conversion, so ought the ministers of the Word of God, with
supernatural assurance, trace for souls the narrow road
which leads to life (Matt. 7,14)

.

54. They will do this without forgetting to exercise the
spirit of kindness and patience which they profess (Luke
9,55) but without concealing anything of the demands of the
Gospel.

55. At the school of Mary they will learn how to live only to
give Christ to the world, but also, if need be, to await with
faith the hour of Jesus and remain at the foot of the cross.

56. Assembled around their priests, the faithful must work
together in this effort for renewal.

57. Wherever God has placed a man, is there not always
more to be done for the cause of God? Our thoughts turn
first of all toward the consecrated souls who, within the
framework of the Church, devote themselves to innumerable
good works. Their religious vows urge them more than
others to fight victoriously under the aegis of Mary against
the unleashing upon the world of the unreasonable greed for
independence, for riches and pleasure.

58. Also, in appeal to the Immaculate, they will oppose the
onslaught of evil with the weapons of prayer and penance,
and with victories of charity.

59. Our thoughts also turn to the Christian families, to
ask them to remain faithful to their irreplaceable mission
in society. May they consecrate themselves in this jubilee
year to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

!

60. This act of piety will constitute a precious spiritual aid
for married couples in the practice of the duties of chastity
and conjugal faithfulness.

61. It will preserve purity in the atmosphere in which the
children grow up.

62. Far more, it will make of the family, inspired by its
devotion to Mary, a living cell of social regeneration and
apostolic penetration.

63. In addition to the family circle, professional and civic
relations offer a vast field of action to Christians desirous
of working for the renewal of society.

10



64. Gathered round the feet of the Virgin, docile to her
exhortations, they will first of all turn a searching look
upon themselves and they will seek to uproot from their
conscience false judgments and selfish impulses, fearing
the falsehood of a love of God which does not translate
itself into effective love of their brothers (I John 4, 20).

65. On that occasion We recalled how the Roman Pontiffs,
conscious of the importance of this pilgrimage, had never
ceased to “enrich it with spiritual favors and with the
benefits of their benevolence.”

66. Is not the history of the past hundred years, which We
have recalled rather broadly, a constant illustration of
this pontifical benevolence, the last act of which was the
closing at Lourdes of the centenary year of the dogma of
the Immaculate Conception?

67. But we would like especially to recall to you, beloved
sons and venerable brethren, a recent document with which
We favored the growth of a missionary apostolate in your
beloved country.

68. In it We had in mind to evoke the “singular merits
which France has acquired throughout the centuries in the
progress of the Catholic faith” and for this reason “We
turned Our mind and Our heart toward Lourdes where,
four years after the definition of the dogma, the Immacu-
late Virgin herself gave supernatural confirmation to the
declaration of the Supreme Teacher through apparitions,
conversations and miracles” (Apostolic Constitution Om-
nium Ecclesiarum, the Mission of France, Aug. 15, 1954:
A.A.S. XLVI, 1954, p. 567).

69. Today again We turn toward the famous sanctuary
which is now preparing to receive the crowds of centenary
pilgrims on the banks of the river Gave.

70. If in the past century ardent public and private sup-
plications have obtained there so many graces of healing
and conversion from God through the intercession of Mary,
We are firmly confident that in this jubilee year Our Lady
will want to respond again with liberality to the expecta-
tions of her children.

71. But We are especially convinced that she urges Us to
recall the spiritual lessons of the apparitions and set them
upon the path which she so clearly traced for us.

11



II.

72. These lessons, the faithful echo of the teachings of the
Gospel message, throw particular light on the contrasts
which oppose the judgment of God to the vain wisdom of
this world.

73. In a society, barely conscious of the ills which assail it,
which conceals its miseries and injustices under an outward
appearance of bright and carefree prosperity, the Immacu-
late Virgin, never touched by sin, showed herself to an
innocent child.

74. With maternal compassion she looks upon this world
which has been redeemed by the blood of her Divine Son,
but in which sin sows so much ruin. And on three occa-
sions she made her urgent appeal: “Penance, penance,
penance!”

75. She even appealed for outward manifestations: “Go
and kiss the earth in penance for sinners.”

76. And to this gesture must be added a prayer : “You must
pray to God for sinners.”

77. This same injunction was made in the time of John
the Baptist, and at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, show-
ing men the way to return to God: “Repent!” (Matt. 3, 2;
4, 17). And who would dare say that this appeal for the
conversion of hearts is not applicable to our times?

78. But how could the Mother of God come to her children
except as the messenger of forgiveness and hope?

79. The water already flows from beneath her feet: “Omnes
sitientes, venite ad aquas, et haurietis salutem a Domino
(All ye who thirst, come to the waters and ye shall draw
health from the Lord.” Office of the feast of the Appari-
tions of Our Lady at Lourdes, III Nocturn)

.

80. At this spring, where gentle Bernadette was the first
to go and drink and wash, there will flow away all the
miseries of the soul and body. “And I went and washed
and I see” (John 9, 1), the blind of the Gospel and the
grateful pilgrim will be able to respond.

81. But, as it was with the crowds which pressed around
Jesus, the healing of physical wounds remains as a gesture

12



of mercy and a sign of that power which the Son of Man
has to remit sins (Cfr. Mark 2 :10)

.

82. The Virgin invites us to the blessed grotto on behalf
of her Divine Son, for the conversion of the heart and in
hope of pardon.

83. Will we heed her?

84. In this humble response of man who admits himself to
be a sinner there resides the true greatness of this jubilee
year.

85. The Church would have a right to expect great good,
if each pilgrim to Lourdes—and even all Christians united
in heart with the centenary celebrations—realized in the
first place this action of sanctification within himself “not
in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth”
(I John 3, 18).

86. There is everything to invite the Christian to this action
of sanctification, for nowhere except, perhaps, at Lourdes
does one feel so moved to prayer, to the forgetting of one-
self and to charity.

87. For instance, the sight of the stretcher-bearers and the
serene peace of the invalids

;
of the fraternity which assem-

bles faithful of all origins in one single invocation; the
sight of the spontaneity of helping each other and the
fervor with which without affectation the pilgrims kneel
in front of the grotto.

88. At seeing all these things, the best persons are com-
pelled by the attraction of a life more completely dedi-
cated to the service of God and to their brothers; the less
fervent become conscious of their lukewarmness and once
again return to the road of prayer

;
the more hardened and

incredulous sinners themselves are often touched by grace,
or at least if they are honest, do not remain unmoved by
the testimony of this “multitude of believers with only
one heart and one soul” (Acts 4, 32).

89. But this experience of a few brief days of pilgrimage
does not in itself generally suffice to engrave in indelible
letters the appeal of Mary for a genuine spiritual conver-
sion.

13



90. And We exhort you, the pastors of dioceses and all the
priests, to a rivalry of zeal so that the pilgrims of the cen-
tenary may benefit by a preparation, for a realization and
above all for a future as conducive as possible to a pro-
found and lasting action of grace.

91. A return to a diligent frequenting of the sacraments,
to the respect of Christian morals in everyday life, and the
rallying to the ranks of Catholic Action and to the various
institutions recommended by the Church: only on these
conditions, is it not true that the important affluence of
crowds expected at Lourdes in 1958 can yield, according
to the expectations of the Immaculate Virgin herself, the
fruits of salvation so necessary to mankind today.

92. But, whatever preeminent importance may be given to
the conversion of the individual pilgrim, it would not suffice.

93. We exhort you in this jubilee year, beloved sons and
venerable brethren, to inspire the faithful committed to
your care to make a collective effort of Christian renewal
of society in answer to the appeal of Mary: “May blind
spirits ... be illumined by the light of truth and justice,”
Pius XI asked at the time of the Marian feasts of the
Jubilee of the Redemption, “so that those who have gone
astray in error might be brought back to the right path,
that a just liberty be granted everywhere to the Church,
and that an era of accord and true prosperity might rise
over all nations” (Letter, Jan. 10, 1935: A.A.S. XXVII,
p. 7).

94. The world, which in our days offers so many legitimate
motives for pride and security, knows also nowadays a
terrible temptation to materialism, often denounced by
Our predecessors and Ourselves.

95. This materialism is not to be found only in the con-
demned philosophy which rules the politics and economic
life of a segment of humanity.

96. It rages also in the love of money, the ruin of which
increases according to the dimensions of modern enter-
prises, and which unfortunately determines so many deci-
sions which weigh on the life of the people.

97. It expresses itself in the cult of the body, in the exces-
sive search for comforts and the flight from all the austeri-
ties of life.

14



98. It prompts one to despise human life, the life itself
which is destroyed before it is able to see the light of day.

99. It resides in the unrestrained search for pleasure which
exhibits itself without modesty and even attempts to seduce
souls which are still pure with reading matter and enter-
tainments.

100. It shows itself in the lack of interest of one’s brother,
in the selfishness which crushes man with injustice and
deprives him of his rights, in a word, in that concept of
life which regulates all things only in terms of material
prosperity and earthly satisfactions.

101. “And I will say to my soul,” the rich man said, “Soul,
thou hast many good things laid up for many years; take
thy ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, ‘Thou
fool, this night do they demand thy soul of thee.’ ” (Luke
12, 19-20)

102. To a society which in its public life often contests
the supreme rights of God, which would conquer the uni-
verse at the expense of its soul (cfr. Mark 8, 36) and has
hastened to its own ruin, the motherly Virgin sent out a
cry of alarm.

103. Christians of every class and every nation will seek
to meet one another in truth and in charity, and to ban-
ish misunderstanding and suspicion. The weight of social
structures and economic pressures burdening the good will
of men is undoubtedly enormous and often paralyzes it.

104. But if it is true as Our predecessors and We Our-
selves have insistently stressed, that the question of man’s
social and political peace is above all a moral question, no
reform can be fruitful, no agreement can be stable without
a change and purification of hearts.

105. The Virgin of Lourdes, in this jubilee year, recalls
this to all men!

106. And if in this solicitude Mary looks upon certain of
her children with special predilection, is it not, beloved
sons and venerable brethren, toward the small, the poor
and the afflicted whom Jesus loved so much?

107. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest” she seems to say together with her
Divine Son (Matt. 11, 28).

15



108. Go to her, you who are crushed by material misery,
defenseless against the hardships of life and the indiffer-
ence of men. Go to her, you who are in mourning and
assailed by moral trials.

109. Go to her, beloved invalids and infirm, you who are
truly welcomed and honored at Lourdes as the suffering
members of Our Lord. Go to her and receive peace of
heart, strength for your daily duty, the joy of sacrifice
offered.

110. The Immaculate Virgin, who knows the secret ways
of grace in souls and the silent work of the supernatural
leaven in this world, knows the great price which God
attaches to your sufferings united to those of the Savior.

111. They can greatly contribute. We have no doubt, to
this Christian renewal of society which We implore of God
through the powerful intercession of His Mother.

112. May there be added to the prayers of the sick, of the
humble, of all the pilgrims to Lourdes, that prayer to Mary
that she may also turn her maternal look toward those who
are still outside the limits of the only fold, the Church,
so that they may come together in unity. May she look
upon those who seek and are thirsty for truth, and lead
them to the source of living waters.

113. May she cast her glance upon the immense continents
and their vast human areas where Christ is unfortunately
so little known, so little loved; and may she obtain for
the Church the freedom and joy to be able to respond
everywhere, always youthful, holy and apostolic, to the
expectations of men.

114. “Kindly come . . .”, said the Virgin to Bernadette.
This discreet invitation which does not compel, which is
addressed to the heart, and requests with delicacy a free
and generous response, the Mother of God puts forward
again to her sons of France and of the world. Christians
will not remain deaf to this appeal; they will go to Mary.

115. And in conclusion of this letter it is to them that We
wish to say together with St. Bernard: “In periculis, in
angustiis, in rebus dubiis, Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca.
. . . Ipsam sequens, non devias ; ipsam rogans, non desperas

;

ipsam cogitans, non erras; ipsa tenente, non corruis; ipsa

16



protegente, non metuis; ipsa duce, non fatigaris; ipsa pro-
pitia, pervenis. ... (In dangers, difficulties and in doubt,
think of Mary, call on Mary. . . . Follow her without swerv-
ing ; call upon her with hope ; think of her with confidence

;

with her support, you will not fall; under her protection,
you may be fearless; under her leadership, be untiring;
with her aid, you will persevere.)” (Horn. II on Missus
est; Patrologia Latina, CLXXXIII, 70-71).

116. We are confident, dear sons and venerable brethren,
that Mary will hear your prayer and Ours. We ask her
this on this feast of the Visitation, which fittingly cele-
brates her who a century ago visited the land of France.

117. And, in inviting you to sing to God together with
the Immaculate Virgin the Magnificat of your gratitude.
We invoke upon you and your faithful, on the shrine of
Lourdes and its pilgrims, on all those who bear the respon-
sibilities of the centenary celebrations, the most bounteous
effusion of grace. In token of which We impart with all
Our heart and with Our constant and paternal benevolence,
the apostolic benediction.

118. Given at Rome at St. Peter’s on the feast of the Visita-
tion of the Most Holy Virgin, July 2, 1957, the nineteenth
of Our pontificate.

POPE PIUS XII

17



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