A doctor, not a miracle worker: medical volunteering in Lourdes
When Michael Moran first went to Lourdes with his father as a child, he was mesmerised by the throngs of people who came to pray at the shrine. More than 200m have done so since Bernadette Soubirous first told of seeing the Virgin Mary in the cleft of a rock in 1858.
While intrigued by tales of cures, these days the Belfast doctor finds that the real miracle of Lourdes lies in the solace it brings to those with serious illness and its capacity to change the lives and perspectives of the able-bodied.
