{"id":62208,"date":"2025-09-30T13:50:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62208"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:50:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:50:34","slug":"will-the-lourdes-procession-become-frances-cultural-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/09\/30\/will-the-lourdes-procession-become-frances-cultural-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the Lourdes Procession Become France\u2019s Cultural Heritage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-129548\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/processione_lourdes-1.webp\" alt=\"lourdes procession\" width=\"604\" height=\"317\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>The <strong>Marian procession of Lourdes<\/strong> could soon be inscribed in the intangible cultural heritage of <strong>France<\/strong>. The sanctuary has submitted a request to the Ministry of Culture<\/i>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the homeland of Voltaire, the <mark><strong>Marian procession of Lourdes<\/strong><\/mark> could be named a <strong>cultural heritage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Sanctuary officially started a few days ago the procedure to have the pilgrimage <i><strong>mariale aux flambeaux<\/strong><\/i> (by torchlight) included in the intangible cultural heritage of France.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The dossier, <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.francebleu.fr\/culture\/patrimoine\/le-sanctuaire-de-lourdes-veut-inscrire-la-procession-mariale-au-patrimoine-culturel-immateriel-de-la-france-6536280\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">submitted<\/a><\/em><\/strong> on September 26 to the <strong>French Ministry of Culture<\/strong>, supports the fact that this living testimony of piety, liturgical tradition, and social cohesion deserves <strong>national protection<\/strong> before aiming for international recognition.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>What the Marian procession of Lourdes is<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Every evening, from April to October, at 9 p.m., thousands of pilgrims walk the sacred path from the Grotto of Apparitions to the Esplanade of the Rosary, holding <strong>lit candles<\/strong>, and accompanying the gesture with the Rosary, silence, and hymns.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On average about <strong>10,000 people<\/strong> from around the world participate; for example, on the upcoming October 2nd, <strong>17,000 people<\/strong> are expected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is a rite that unites the <strong>visual<\/strong> dimension of light with the <strong>spiritual<\/strong> dimension of prayer, rooted in the first devotional manifestations following the apparitions of 1858. Specifically, it is a rite that arose spontaneously in <strong>1864<\/strong>, on the occasion of the blessing of the statue of Mary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This particular <strong>tribute to the Virgin<\/strong> has over time enriched itself with other symbols, such as the expression of <strong>unity<\/strong> among pilgrims of different languages and cultures, and the participation <strong>at the forefront<\/strong> of the procession of people with disabilities and the sick, in the full evangelical spirit of the &#8220;last&#8221; becoming &#8220;first&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Usually, firefighters, banner bearers, hoteliers, and local shopkeepers join the rite, as well as civil authorities such as the municipality and the prefecture.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The candidacy for intangible heritage of France<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The candidacy is based on <strong>four criteria<\/strong>: the perpetuity of the tradition, practiced for more than 150 years; the transmission of intangible knowledge (songs, gestures, community organization); its identity, social and cultural role for the Marian citadel and the local economy; and finally, the universal scope of its values: fraternity, solidarity, hospitality.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even more importantly, national inscription in the French inventory of intangible heritage represents <strong>a preliminary step<\/strong> essential to then compete for inclusion in UNESCO\u2019s representative list of humanity as an intangible treasure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When <strong>Voltaire<\/strong> prophesied the end of Christianity and, as a prince of tolerance, invoked the crushing of &#8220;l\u2019inf\u00e2me&#8221;, meaning Catholicism, he hardly imagined that <strong>250 years after<\/strong> his death, Enlightenment France could recognize devotion to Mary as a State heritage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Of course, this is <strong>a very ambitious initiative<\/strong> with no certainty of success. The answer will come in the coming weeks, and <strong>UCCR<\/strong> will keep readers informed of further developments.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-129550\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/processione_lourdes1.webp\" alt=\"lourdes procession\" width=\"491\" height=\"516\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-129549\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/processione_lourdes2.webp\" alt=\"lourdes procession\" width=\"563\" height=\"373\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sanctuary has submitted a request to the Ministry of Culture to inscribe the Marian procession of Lourdes in the intangible heritage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1976,1977,1979,1978],"class_list":["post-62208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-lourdes","tag-lourdes-cultural-heritage","tag-lourdes-procession","tag-world-heritage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Will the Lourdes Procession Become France\u2019s Cultural Heritage? 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