Notre Dame de Lourdes is a predominantly Franco-Manitoban village in Manitoba, Canada. It is located in Central Plains Region, 100km south-west of Winnipeg . It is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Lorne and the Rural Municipality of South Norfolk. The village had a population of 589 inhabitants in the 2006 census, a decline of 4.85% from the 619 inhabitants during the 2001 census[1].
The town's name (English: Our Lady of Lourdes) is a reference to the Marian apparition that is said to have appeared before various individuals in separate occasions around Lourdes, France.
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, 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 here in 1912.
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