PREFACE

  IN consequence of a remarkable favor received, the account of which will be duly found in the course of this work, I promised, some years ago, to write the history of the extraordinary events which have given rise to the Pilgrimage of Lourdes.  If I have been guilty of a grave fault in deferring for so long a time the execution of my promise, I have, at least, made the most conscientious efforts to study, with scrupulous attention, the subject I wished to treat.

 The presence of the incessant procession of visitors, pilgrims, men, women, whole populations, who come now from every quarter to kneel before a lonely grotto, entirely unknown ten years ago, and which the word of a child has caused to be regarded all at once as a divine sanctuary; on seeing the vast edifice rising which the faith of the people is erecting on that spot at a cost of nearly two millions, I felt an earnest desire not only to search for the proofs of the supernatural fact itself, but also to trace in what manner, by what logical connection of things or of ideas, the belief in it had been so universally spread. 

How has it been produced? How was an event of such a nature accomplished in the middle of the nineteenth century? How could the testimony of an illiterate little girl with regard to a fact so extraordinary, touching Apparitions which no one of those around her saw, find credit and give birth to such astonishing results?

There are persons who have one peremptory word in answer to such questions, and the word “superstition” is very convenient for that purpose. For my own part, I am not so expeditious; and I wished to account to myself for a phenomenon so entirely out of the ordinary course of things, and so worthy of attention, from whatever point of view we regard it. Whether the Miracle be true or false; whether the cause of this vast concourse of people is to be found in divine agency or human error, a study of this kind does not the less possess the highest interest. I remark, however, that the Sectaries of Free-thought are very cautious of entering upon it. They prefer to deny the whole thing bluntly. This is, at the same time, easier and more prudent.

I understand, very differently from them, the restless search after truth. If to deny everything flatly appears to them the simplest mode, to affirm everything roundly appears to me to be somewhat hazardous.

I have seen savants toil up the steep paths of mountains in order to be able to explain to themselves why an insect of a certain class which is found during the summer on the highest peaks, is, after the winter has set in, only to be met with in the valleys. This is all very well, and I cannot blame them. I sometimes say to myself, however, that the great movements of humanity, and the causes which set immense multitudes in motion, have claims fully as great on the employment of the sagacity of the human mind. History, Religion, Science, Philosophy, Medicine, the different workings of human nature, are, in my opinion, quite as curious as Entomology.

This study I wished to render complete. I did not, therefore, content myself with official documents or letters, or official reports or written attestations. It was my wish, as much as possible, to know everything and see everything for myself, to have everything brought freshly before my eyes through the memory and narrative of eye-witnesses. I have made long journeys over France to interrogate all those who had figured whether as the chief personages or as witnesses in the events I had to recount, to check their accounts by comparing them one with another, and then arrive at entire and lucid truth. 

In my investigations connected with this divine history, I wished, in a word, to follow and even push further, if that were possible, the excellent method which   M. Thiers has employed with such happy results in the long labors and sagacious researches which preceded his chef-d’oeuvre on the Consulate and the Empire.

I trust that, with God's assistance, my efforts have not been entirely in vain. 

Once having acquired the truth, I have written about it as freely as if, like the Duc de St. Simon, I had closed my door and written a history not destined to appear to the world until after the lapse of a century. I have wished to say everything while the witnesses are still living, to give their names and place of abode, that it might be possible for others to interrogate them and to renew the investigation I have myself made, in order to control my own labor. It was my wish that each reader might examine for himself my assertions, and render homage to the truth, if I have been sincere; it was my wish that he might be able to cover me with confusion and dishonor if I have been guilty of falsehoods. 

The deep investigation to which I devoted myself, the documents I consulted, the numerous testimonies I have heard, have allowed me to enter into circumstantial details, which were not at the disposal of those who gave a summary account of these events when they first occurred, as also to rectify sundry errors which had crept into the chronological department. I have been most attentive in re-establishing the exact order in which the several events occurred. This was very-necessary in order to convey a just conception of their logical consequences and their real essence.

To study facts, not only in their outward appearance, but in their hidden life; to trace, with an ever wakeful attention, the link often distant-often imperceptible at first sight-which unites them; to understand and explain clearly their cause, origin and generation; to surprise and detect the action of the eternal laws and marvelous harmonies of the miraculous orders, in the depths one attempts to illuminate; such is the aim I had the boldness to conceive.

Such being my thoughts, no circumstance could be a matter of indifference or deserve neglect.

The slightest detail might contain a light, and permit me to seize-if I may be allowed so to speak-the hand of God in flagrante delicto.

From this arose my researches; from this the form very different from the habitual style of official histories, which my narrative adopted of its own accord; from this, both in my account of the Apparitions as in that of the miraculous cures, those portraits, dialogues, landscapes, circumstances of time and place, and descriptions of the weather: from this, those thousand details which have cost me so much trouble to collect, but which gave me as I piously stored them up, the unspeakable pleasure of seeing for myself, of tasting and feeling with all the charm of a discovery scarcely suspected beforehand-the deep harmony of works which proceed from God.

This joy I now endeavor to communicate to my readers, to my friends, to those, who are curious to learn the secrets from on high. Some of these details at times arrive so wonderfully and opportunely that the reader, accustomed to the discords of this world, might suspect the painter of flattery in his picture. But God is an artist that needs not the invention of others. The supernatural works which He designs to accomplish here below are perfect in themselves. To copy them faithfully would be to hit on the ideal.

But who can copy them in this way? Who can see them in all their beauty and harmony? Who has not his sight dimmed? Who can penetrate all the secrets of these great and little things? No one, alas! Almost everything escapes us and we only see by glimpses. 

I have now dared to say what I should have wished to have done. The reader alone will see what I have done.