Notre Dame de Lourdes is an unincorporated community recognized as a

local urban district A local urban district is a type of unincorporated community within the Canadian province of Manitoba. According to ''The Municipal Act'', a local urban district is a locality wholly within a rural municipality that "has at least 250 residents and ...

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 Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

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 749,6 ...

. 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 ap ...

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 Fr ...

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 Château ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

History

The site of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes lies in

Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

country. Canadian pioneer explorer

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

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 Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, 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