Notre Dame de Lourdes is an unincorporated community recognized as a local urban district in the

Municipality of Lorne The Municipality of Lorne (french: Municipalité de Lorne) is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. History The RM was created on January 1, 2015 via the amalgamation of the RM of Lorne and the villages of Notre-Dam ...

within the Canadian province of

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

that held village status prior to January 1, 2015. It is located within the

Central Plains Region The Central Plains Region (french: Région des plaines centrales) is an informal geographic region of the Canadian province of Manitoba located in the south central part of the Canadian province of Manitoba, directly west of Winnipeg. Its major ...

, 100 km southwest of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

. The community had a population of 683 inhabitants in the 2011 census, an increase of 16.0% from the 589 inhabitants during the 2006 census. The community's name (English: Our Lady of Lourdes) is a reference to the

Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance by Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances during a period of time. In the Catholic Church, in order for a reported appearance to be classified as a Marian a ...

that is said to have appeared before

Saint Bernadette Bernadette Soubirous (; ; oc, Bernadeta Sobirós ; 7 January 184416 April 1879), also known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (''Lorda'' in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in F ...

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Châ ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

History

The site of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes lies in Ojibwa country. Canadian pioneer explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye traveled through the area in 1738 while seeking to establish a route to the western oceans. The first settlers, from present-day

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, arrived in the 1880s. The post office was established in 1892 on 36-6-9W. Father Dom Benoît became the parish's first priest after arriving with French and Swiss immigrants. He also established a seminary of the Canons Regulaires with about 30 students but changes to the rules from Rome caused its dissolution. A CNR railway point was established in 1912.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Notre Dame de Lourdes had a population of 756 living in 287 of its 296 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 744. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable people

* Rhayne Vermette, filmmaker

References

* ''Geographic Names of Manitoba'' (pg. 195) - the Millennium Bureau of Canada Central Plains Region, Manitoba Designated places in Manitoba Former villages in Manitoba Local urban districts in Manitoba Manitoba communities with majority francophone populations Populated places disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Manitoba {{manitoba-geo-stub