When Pope Benedict XVI visited this small town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees in September, he followed in the footsteps of millions of pilgrims who went before him. Like them, he took Communion, drank from the holy spring and touched the stone at the base of a cliff by the Gave River, where heaven opened to a 14-year-old girl, known as Bernadette, who said she first saw the Virgin Mary there on Feb. 11, 1858. The pope celebrated the 150th anniversary of St. Bernadette's apparitions, with a pilgrim's heart full of yearning for transformation. Six million people visit Lourdes every year, including 100,000 volunteers and 80,000 ill and disabled pilgrims seeking cures for their afflictions or the strength to endure them. Since 1858, about 6,800 people have reported being cured at St. Bernadette's grotto, though the Roman Catholic Church has proclaimed only 67 of these to be miracles and hasn't recorded the number of spiritual healings said to have occurred at Lourdes.