Part 1 The Lourdes of the apparitions: town, region, family; the apparitions and their interpretation; after-visions - cultists and seers; the bishop, the nanny and the journalist - Lourdes emerges on to the national scene; Bernadette. Part 2 The Lourdes of pilgrimage: the battle of the books; the assumption and the foundations of pilgrimage; the past, the present and the rituals of modern pilgrimage; the cures; religion and science in the Third Republic.
