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The Holy Father made his own personal pilgrimage to Lourdes
from Saturday, 13th September until Monday, 15th September 2008
to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.

On Saturday evening he visited three of the locations of the Jubilee Way ...

... the font in which Bernadette was baptised ...

... the former prison cell, the cachot, in which the Soubirous family lived ...

and the grotto.

He also attended the conclusion of the Torchlight Procession
in the Rosary Square

On Sunday - the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross -
he offered Mass on the Prairie ...

The World Youth Day Cross had been brought to Lourdes for the Pope's Visit

... and in the evening took part in the conclusion
of the Blessed Sacrament Procession on the Prairie.

On Monday he visited the Oratory of the Hospice
where Bernadette received her First Holy Communion,
the fourth Jubilee Way location  ...

(seen here on the television screen by those assembled in the Rosary Square)

... and offered Mass for the Sick in front of the Rosary Basilica.

The Holy Father anointed some of the sick pilgrims.

Photo credits: Monsignor William Saunders, in Lourdes for the Papal Visit,
and the KTO television coverage