Confraternities and archconfraternities
Hospitalite Notre-Dame de Lourdes
HNDL · Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes · hospitaliers · brancardiers
Confraternity of volunteers at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, under the spiritual authority of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes. Office at Hospitalite Notre-Dame de Lourdes, BP 197, 65106 Lourdes Cedex, France.
At a shrineBelongs to Confraternity of volunteers at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, under the spiritual authority of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes.
The long way round
Email request. The annual cotisation is 11 euros for those in their first four years of service and 18 euros thereafter, for all Hospitaliers. On top of that you pay your own travel, accommodation and meals, at the reduced rates HNDL offers its volunteers.
Write to enrollDownload the application form from the page above, then return it by email, by post or by fax. It will not be accepted without the letter of recommendation.
The real first step is obtaining a letter of recommendation, either from the President of a Pilgrimage Hospitality, a priest of your diocese (obligatory for Saint John the Baptist Service) or an existing HNDL member, because the stage application will not be accepted without one.
Members have a portal to sign in to.
These are the volunteers you see at Lourdes pushing the blue carts, meeting trains and planes, and lifting sick pilgrims to the baths and the processions. Men were traditionally called brancardiers, stretcher-bearers, and the whole body is the Hospitalite. Joining is treated as a vocation rather than a sign-up: you come for a period of service called a stage, between seven and fifteen days, paying your own fare, bed and food, and you do that for four years before you may ask to make your Engagement and become a full Hospitalier or Hospitaliere. Of everything in this directory it asks the most of you in practical terms and the least in terms of prayer rules.
Where it comes from
The hospitality service at Lourdes grew up with the pilgrimage itself in the nineteenth century. No founding date was printed on the pages retrieved when this record was read.
What you promise
Be at least 18 and not older than 75, at the discretion of the head of service. Each stage lasts a minimum of seven and a maximum of fifteen days. Pay your own travel, accommodation and meals. Pay the annual membership subscription, called the cotisation. After a fourth year of service you may ask to make your Engagement and become a full member. Women generally serve in Notre Dame Service, Saint John the Baptist Service, Marie Saint Frai Service or Saint Michael Service; men generally in Saint Joseph Service or Saint Michael Service. First-year volunteers should arrive on a Saturday or Sunday because Formation, the induction course, begins on the Monday.
What the Church attaches
Membership brings the newsletter and insurance cover during service, and access to the Hospitalite's low-cost accommodation centres, self-service restaurant and the Foyer club for those who have paid the cotisation. This is a work of mercy rather than an indulgenced confraternity; no indulgences are published on the pages retrieved.
Enrollment checked 2026-10-22. Details change without notice and parish practice varies. Confirm before relying on this sheet.