The first religious ceremony did not take place till six years after the apparitions.

A marble statue of the Virgin was installed with great pomp on the very spot where she had appeared.

It was a magnificent day, all Lourdes was gay with flags, and every bell rang joyously.

Five years later, in 1869, the first mass was celebrated in the crypt of the Basilica, whose spire was not yet finished.

Meantime, gifts flowed in without a pause, a river of gold was streaming towards the Grotto, a whole town was about to spring up from the soil.