Lourdes water

Since the supposed apparitions, many people have claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it,[1] and the Lourdes authorities provide it free of charge.

[5] The French author Émile Zola visited the Sanctuary of Lourdes in 1891 and again in 1892, and wrote of the pools' unsanitary conditions: And the water was not exactly inviting.

There was everything in it: threads of blood, sloughed-off skin, scabs, bits of cloth and bandage, an abominable soup of ills... the miracle was that anyone emerged alive from this human slime.

Rather than drinking fresh water, he asked an assistant to fill his glass from a bathing pool, heavily contaminated from the sick pilgrims who had been immersed in it.

The original spring can be seen within the Grotto, lit from below, and protected by a glass screen.Over the last few years the system of taps has been progressively altered.

As of 2008, water is dispensed from a series of taps set into stone in a circle around the base of one of the smaller towers of the Upper Basilica.

Each station carries a title of the Virgin Mary, such as "Queen of the Apostles", "Mother of Good Counsel", and "Our Lady of Light".

[11] Traditionally, pilgrims collect gallons of water at the taps to be given to family and friends unable to make the trip to Lourdes.