Lourdes France

It was Leopold Pene, a third-generation souvenir statue maker and native Lourdois, who helped me reconcile the sacred and profane natures of this city in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Leopold is a retired statue maker, as are most souvenir artisans in Lourdes. The stuff for sale today in the narrow streets outside the Domaine Religieuse, the entire "religious city" of shrines, churches and hospices, is now made chiefly in Italy and Spain, where labor is cheaper.

When Pope Benedict XVI visits this small town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees next weekend, he will follow in the footsteps of millions of pilgrims who have come before him. Like them, he will take Communion, drink from the holy spring and touch the stone at the base of a cliff by the Gave River, where heaven opened to a 14-year-old girl, known as Bernadette, who said she first saw the Virgin Mary there on Feb. 11, 1858. The pope will celebrate the 150th anniversary of St.

Pope John Paul II struggled through Mass at a French shrine, gasping, trembling and asking aides for help during the 2 1/2-hour service in sizzling heat. More than 300,000 pilgrims packed a field overlooking the Lourdes grotto in the Pyrenees, where a peasant girl said in 1858 that she had visions of a white-clad Virgin Mary. Many pilgrims to Lourdes are sick, handicapped or aged.