Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423 [email protected]
Discussion Questions
One of the questions that I have been very curious about the case of Lourdes is why this places becomes such a holy place of super-regional importance and massive site of pilgrimage, given the wealth of information that Ruth Harris provides about the regional setting of Lourdes among many Marian apparition sites and holy places in the Pyrenees. There are so many of such places of local cultural significance but very few of them were raised to national and international consciousness, drew their pilgrims from such great distances. What are some of the political, local, geologic, spiritual, economic, geographical factors? (Omur)
One of the themes that most interested me about Lourdes and Harris' description of it were the roles of socioeconomic status and national politics that shaped the site's history and at varied times emphasized or collapsed the local and national conceptions of Lourdes. Bernadette and the Lourdais were predominantly poor and often struggling for survival, but were utlilized (exploited?) by those advocating for a restoration of the monarchy over the secular Republican trends of the time. One of the narratives that emerged painted the lowly and the emperor as being advocates of the shrine, while the mid-level authorities (police) were seen as the corrupt enemies to the faith. How does this rearrangement of the established social hierarchy (also later embodied by upper-class women performing the dirty tasks of cleaning the sick) make the seemingly contradictory local and national significance of Lourdes make sense? (Jackie)
Harris also makes a point to emphasize France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War as a motivator for national pilgrimage to rediscover France's rightful Catholic identity after the disappointment of defeat and the chaos of civil war and the Commune. Yet this type of national pilgrimage seems to have been fairly quickly supplanted by pilgrims seeking healing, which, Harris also notes on page 288, had nothing to do with Bernadette's original vision. Might the natural spring have influenced this shift to a place of physical miraculous healing? (Jackie)
Another aspect that stuck out for me, given some of our discussion and readings from previous weeks, was the physical transformation Lourdes underwent after Bishop Laurence and Father Peyramale purchased the Grotto and headed the construction of the "chapel" requested by the Apparition. Harris states that "they sought to remake this wild and even unprepossessing site into something more picturesque and convenient" (169). How does this "de-naturalization" of the Grotto play into the topic of built environments of healing? Could the Catholic Church have had as much success with the site if they had left it as it was? Are these changes analagous to the earlier modifications to Bernadette's actual vision (i.e. making the representations of the Virgin older)? (Jackie)
What was so unique about Bernadette Soubirous that helped foster the creation of Lourdes into a place of pilgrimage? “The young visionary came from a poor and even disreputable family, could not speak French and was probably already sick with the tuberculosis that eventually killed her in 1879” (9). She was “poor, simple, even sometimes considered slow-witted” (10). Furthermore, what was so special about Bernadette and Lourdes compared to other apparition sites in the area? (Sam)
The film, “The Song of Bernadette,” is introduced with: “For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.” In light of the reading and our study of Lourdes, comment on this quote. As someone planning on going into medicine, I find the intersection of religion and science intriguing and complex. Discuss the relationship between religion and science at the time of the apparitions and in the late 19th century. In what ways did Lourdes alter this relationship? (Sam)