Built into the rocky hillside, this open-air sanctuary was inspired by the shrine of Lourdes in France, site of an 1858 apparition of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl. In 1874, Brother Ludger Pauzé, a teacher at the Bourget school, placed a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in a niche on the mountainside. The shrine's popularity has not ceased to grow since his death.