Curative Encounters: Representations of the transformational journey of the pilgrim to Lourdes

Traditionally, the pilgrim journey is punctuated with accounts of transformational curative encounters and there are few destinations that are better associated with miracles and cures than Lourdes, in the south of France.
Curative power at Lourdes is associated with physical recovery, psychosomatic relief and well-being. While some argue that shrines such as Lourdes have embraced the curative and healing and turned it into religious spectacle (Kaufman, 2005), there is evidence that the ‘authentic Lourdes’ retains relevance in an increasingly pluralistic society. Lourdes has consistently promoted the supernatural with monuments to the miraculés (healed pilgrims), picture postcards of the cured and novelty souvenirs celebrating the ‘known’ miraculous events. The visual power of curative encounters at Lourdes has significance both in a spiritual and political sense, as will be explored in this chapter.