My Lourdes Book

Lourdes was at the very centre of nineteenth century debates on religion, science and medicine. Both the Church and secularists championed the 'miracle' town as crucial in shaping how society should think about the mind, body and spirit. Since the ‘visions’ of Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 transformed the quiet Pyrenean town into an international tourist and pilgrimage destination, it has been a site for controversy. In her well-crafted and carefully researched book, Harris deftly places Lourdes and its attendant spiritual movement firmly at the centre of French history and shows its significance in the country’s development.

Reproduction of the original.

Contains letters written by Flannery O'Connor.

Whether a pilgrimage centers around a place, a visionary individual, or a text, it brings widely diverse individuals and their beliefs, doctrines, and expectations into contact with each other. This important collection assesses the qualities and power of pilgrimage shrines as sites for accommodating various, often competing, meanings and practices, both among pilgrims and between shrine custodians and devotees. Contributors discuss the highly organized shrine at Lourdes and also the shrine at San Giovanni Rotondo in Sangiovannesi, Italy, where conflicting interests among townspeople and pilgrims have crystallized around the life and the remains, respectively, of a holy man. Other contributors consider the competing images of Jerusalem among pilgrims of various Christian faiths-Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Christian Zionist-and explore the unique attributes of shrines in Sri Lanka and Peru. A major advance in understanding the complexity of pilgrimage, Contesting the Sacred provides valuable insight into the process of exchange between human beings and the divine that gives pilgrimage its central rationale. John Eade's new introduction places the book's theoretical frame in the context of recent thinking and writing on pilgrimage and considers the impact of globalization and tourism on pilgrimage cults and sites.

Excerpt from Heaven's Recent Wonders, or the Work of Lourdes Many a time, care-worn and burdened denizens of earth feel themselves impelled to cry out: Is there a God who cares for us? Is prayer of any avail? Is faith not all a matter of training, of environment, of imagination, of nervous excitement or of mental exaltation? Is there any palpable evidence under the sun all but compelling an affirmative answer to the first questions and a negative to the last? Is there any visible witness to the Divine guidance of the Catholic Church as Jehovah gave to the Jews of old and as Christ gave to men when He walked among them? Is there a voice from Heaven which comes to people as it came to Saul on the road to Damascus and which, dispensing with a long course of study, argument and even preparatory prayer, suddenly bids the infidel to say: "Lord, what wilt Thou that I do?" The most stolid when acquainted with the facts must answer: Yes, at Lourdes there is all that and more! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.