<p>The French town of Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics – this year even welcoming the Pope. This shrine in the Pyrenees Mountains is the site of miracles and Christian fervour, where the young shepherdess Bernadette Soubirous saw 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary and where many people believe they have been miraculously healed. The Feast of the Assumption is the most important date in the Lourdes calendar, when tens of thousands travel from all over the world, to drink and wash in the shrine’s water, and sing and pray in huge candle-lit processions behind the white statue of the Virgin Mary. John Laurenson has joined them to hear stories of the faithful, and to meet a woman whose job description is unique in the world. Dr Giana Monami investigates miracles. Her ‘Bureau de Constatation’ brings the cold analysis of science to claims of instant, otherwise-inexplicable, permanent healings. There have been 72 so far. Dr Monami talks about her investigations and the other miracles that happen here. Those that are healed in their hearts. That find God. That end addictions. And there is another Lourdes miracle: the extraordinary solidarity shown by the thousands of mostly-very young ‘hospitalier’ volunteers who help the sick and disabled people who come – also in their thousands – to turn their pain into joy and their suffering into hope</p>

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