IN the name of the See, or to speak more correctly, in that of the Church, Mgr. Laurence purchased from the town of Lourdes the Grotto, the portion of land by which it is surrounded, and the entire group of the Rocks of Massabielle. M. Lacadé was Mayor at the time. He it was who proposed to the municipal council, of selling to the Church, the Spouse of Christ, of those places now forever holy, where the Mother of God had appeared. His signature was formally attached to the contract of sale.
This sale was authorized by M. Rouland, as was also the construction of a church in eternal memory of the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to Bernadette Soubirous, of the issuing of the Spring, and of the countless miracles which were accomplished in order to attest the reality of the Divine Visions.
While the vast temple dedicated to the Immaculate Conception on the rugged rocks of Massabielle was rising stone by stone from its foundations, Our Lady of Lourdes continued to pour out her miracles and her benefactions on mankind. At Paris and Bordeaux, in Périgord, in Bretagne and in Anjou, in the most lonely country places, and in the very heart of thickly inhabited cities, Our Lady of Lourdes was invoked, and everywhere Our Lady of Lourdes responded with undeniable signs of her power and goodness.
Let us still narrate two of these divine histories before we close our tale, and give a tableau of the present state of things. The first forms an episode in the life of the author of this book which will never be effaced from his memory. This episode we subjoin, just as we wrote it nearly seven years ago.
