Stichting Militaire Lourdes Bedevaart

Founded in 1959, Stichting Militaire Lourdes Bedevaart is a faith-based organisation based in Duiven, Netherlands working on religion & faith.

The Stichting Militaire Lourdes Bedevaart (SMLB) is a Dutch foundation with ANBI status, part of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. It has organised an annual military pilgrimage from the Netherlands to Lourdes, France, since its founding in May 1959, in cooperation with the Roman Catholic pastoral care of the armed forces (RKGV). The target group is active military personnel, veterans, post-active retired military personnel and civilian Defence employees, along with their supporters. The foundation may also take or support other initiatives, such as spiritual or pilgrimage trips to other Roman Catholic military sites. The international pilgrimage brings together military personnel from more than 40 countries, with around 17,000 participants in recent editions and close to 300 from the Netherlands. The foundation also offers a motorcycle pilgrimage to Lourdes, and the Huis voor de Pelgrim handles registrations, invoicing and hotel payments under a cooperation agreement signed in November 2025.