The relics of the patron saint of a French town visited by millions of Catholics every year are to travel to the UK for the first time.
Carfin Grotto in Motherwell, which is celebrating its centenary this year, has been included as a Scottish stop-off point for a two-day display of relics belonging to St Bernadette.
Bernadette Soubirous was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes and is said to have experienced 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary between February 11 and July 16 in 1858 who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto at Massabielle.
After a canonical investigation, Soubirous's reports were eventually declared "worthy of belief" on 18 February 1862, and the apparition became known as Our Lady of Lourdes.
Despite being rigorously interviewed by officials of both the Catholic Church and the French government, she stuck consistently to her story
On 8 December 1933, Pope Pius XI, declared Soubirous a saint of the Catholic Church.
The relics will tour more than 50 venues around England, Scotland and Wales, including the Anglican Liverpool Cathedral.
A film about St Bernadette's life starring Jennifer Jones - The Song of Bernadette - was made in 1943 and later turned into a Broadway play.
Catholics believe that Soubirous’s body has remained internally incorrupt.
The shrine at Lourdes went on to become a major pilgrimage site, attracting over five million pilgrims of all denominations every year.
Bishops from across Scotland will gather at the shrine on Sunday, September 25 for a service that will culminate in a torchlit procession.
Carfin Lourdes Grotto was created in the early twentieth century and was the brainchild of Father, later Canon Thomas N. Taylor, parish priest of St. Francis Xavier's Parish in the small, mining village of Carfin, which lies two miles east of Motherwell.
Following a trip to France's principal Marian shrine at Lourdes, Canon Taylor's vision was to build a religious memorial based on the template of the Grotto of Massabielle.
Since its opening in the early 1920s, the "grotto" has attracted pilgrims in the hundreds of thousands from Scotland and beyond.
A spokeman for the Diocese of Motherwell said: "This year is extra special for us at Carfin Grotto as we are celebrating 100 years since our opening in 1922.
"Closer to the date we will email and update pilgrims what is planned for each day of the relics visit."
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