OUR LADY OF LOURDES.
BY HENRI LASSERRE.
PART I.
INTRODUCTION.
The full and complete history of the remarkable apparition of Lourdes is now, for the first time, presented to the English-speaking Catholic public. Mr. Lawlor has given an abridgment of M. Lasserre's narrative, with some interesting additions from other sources, in his charming volume, Pilgrimages in the Pyrenees and Landes. A short sketch of the history of the events at Lourdes has also been given in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, of Dublin. In this country the Ave Maria is now engaged in republishing Mr. Lawlor's sketch of the history. We trust our readers will thank us for placing before them the full and authentic history of M. Lasserre, a work which has received the favorable notice of the most competent judges, and has been honored by a brief of felicitation from the Holy Father. The author, who was himself one of the subjects of the miraculous efficacy of the water of the fountain of Lourdes, has spared no pains to make his work perfectly satisfactory. The evidence, which he has collected and arranged with consummate care and skill, leaves nothing to be desired in respect to the proof of the reality and the supernatural character of the events related. The charm of his style, the subtle and powerful irony which he employs with so much effect against the sceptics who deny the possibility of any sort of supernatural incidents, and the vivacity of his descriptions, make his work extremely pleasant and profitable reading. Our devout Catholic readers will find great delight in perusing M. Lasserre's narrative; and others, although they may receive it with a smile of incredulity, and perhaps favor us with a few witticisms in respect to its contents, will find it to be, as the French sceptics have found it, a very tough subject for any thing like serious and reasonable refutation.—Editor of The Catholic World.