The Pope was in Lourdes because it is the 150th anniversary of the shrine where a young girl was said to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary and over 200,000 Catholics had travelled there to hear him speak.
The Pope also offered prayers at the Grotto of Massabielle, which is also known as the Cave of Apparitions.
14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, in 1858, said she had seen the Virgin Mary in Lourdes and the site has been a place of religious pilgrimage ever since.
Pope Benedict is visiting Lourdes for three days and on Saturday, he also gave an outdoor Mass in Paris, the capital of France.
The religious leader arrived in Paris on Friday for his first visit to France since he became Pope in 2005 and French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed him to the country.
