The 81-year-old Benedict said a Mass for more than 150,000 people on a field in the shadow of the sanctuary built over the spot of the apparitions in 1858.
Pilgrims flocked here from dozens of countries for the pope's three-day visit, his 10th abroad and his first to France. Many were in wheelchairs or stretchers and helped by volunteers.
When he arrived on Saturday night, Benedict prayed in the grotto where Bernadette Soubirous said the Madonna appeared and spoke to her 18 times and he drank water from a spring that believers say has healing powers.
In the past 150 years, the Church has recognised as "miracles" more than 65 medically inexplicable healings of sick pilgrims who visited Lourdes.
Benedict, saying Mass from under white canopies shaped like sails, told his listeners to be true to their faith because "it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weakness and sins".
Wearing red, white and gold vestments, he told a crowd wrapped in jackets against an unusually cold late summer day that "the power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us".
"This is an incredible experience for our group, especially for the sick ones," said Sean Luddock, a volunteer who helped lead a pilgrimage of several hundred people from Ireland.
"We come here in the same period every year and this year it just happened to coincide with the pope's visit. What a treat!" he said.
EERIE SILENCE
On Sunday night, an eerie silence fell over a crowd of tens of thousands of people along both sides of the Gave River as the pope led a eucharistic adoration service in which a large communion host Catholics believe is Christ's body was displayed.
He also addressed French bishops and, repeating the Church's opposition to divorce, said they cannot bless "irregular unions," a reference to Catholics who divorced and remarried without a Church annulment.
Since he arrived in France on Friday, the pope has effectively given the country's Catholics a series of pep talks, urging them not to be afraid to live their faith in public despite "laicite", France's separation of church and state.
Religion has re-emerged as a factor in public life, especially because of the growth of Islam, and French Catholics have increasingly spoken out on social issues.
In his homily at Lourdes, the pope told his listeners to reject the concept that praying is "wasting time" and appealled to young people not to be afraid to become priests or nuns.
The once powerful French church is short of priests and fewer than 10 percent of French catholics attend Sunday mass.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
