Saint Bernadette Soubirous

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A group of more than 250 pilgrims composed largely of U.S. Military personnel—including the ill, wounded, and injured, along with their companions and caretakers—headed home from France this week after a week-long journey of healing to the Marian grotto and bath springs in Lourdes. The Warriors to Lourdes went to the Pyrenees Mountain village last week to take part in the 63rd annual Pèlerinage Militaire International (PMI)—or International Military Pilgrimage—staged annually since 1958 at one of the world’s holiest Catholic pilgrimage sites where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in a series of apparitions exactly 100 years prior.