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The focal point of this monument is actually found in the exact center of the Shrine slightly below the crest. Set in a niche is a life-sized, white marble statue of the Blessed Virgin as She appeared at Lourdes, France, to a peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous. A statue of Bernadette transfixed in prayerful joy set on a platform of stone below. The Lourdes story goes back to February 11, 1858. On that day a little girl, Bernadette Soubirous, fourteen years of age, was walking by a rock cave near her native town, looking of pieces of firewood for her poor parents. Because her companion has gone on ahead of her, she was all alone. Suddenly she heard a sound like that of the wind. She looked toward the trees, but they were not moving. She looked again, this time to the niche of the rocky grotto. There she saw the figure of a lady, a Lady clothed in a white garment with a blue sash. There were golden roses at her feet. Her face was sweet and smiling. In her hand was a rosary. This was the first vision which Mary granted to Bernadette. The last took place on July 16, 1858. Our Lady gave the young girl many messages. She told her to drink from a spring which suddenly sprang up at the foot of the grotto. She bade the child have priests erect a church on the spot, and then in one of her apparitions our Blessed Lady revealed her name: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Miracles to this present day occur at this shrine in Lourdes, France.
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