Saint Bernadette Soubirous
(January 7, 1844 – April 16, 1879)
Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844, the first child of a poor miller in the town of Lourdes in southern France. On February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette in a cave above the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes. Bernadette, 14 years old, was known as a virtuous girl though a dull student who had not even made her first Holy Communion. In poor health, she had suffered from asthma from an early age.
There were 18 appearances in all, the final one occurring on the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 16. Although Bernadette’s initial reports provoked skepticism, her daily visions of “the Lady” brought great crowds of the curious. The Lady, Bernadette explained, had instructed her to have a chapel built on the spot of the visions. There, the people were to come to wash in and drink of the water of the spring that had welled up from the very spot where Bernadette had been instructed to dig.
According to Bernadette, the Lady of her visions was a girl of 16 or 17 who wore a white robe with a blue sash. Yellow roses covered her feet, a large rosary was on her right arm. In the vision on March 25 she told Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” It was only when the words were explained to her that Bernadette came to realize who the Lady was.
Few visions have ever undergone the scrutiny that these appearances of the Immaculate Virgin were subject to. Lourdes became one of the most popular Marian shrines in the world, attracting millions of visitors. Miracles were reported at the shrine and in the waters of the spring. After thorough investigation, Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862.
She was hounded by the public as well as by civic officials until at last she was protected in a convent of nuns. Five years later, she petitioned to enter the Sisters of Notre Dame of Nevers. After a period of illness she was able to make the journey from Lourdes and enter the novitiate. But within four months of her arrival she was given the last rites of the Church and allowed to profess her vows. She recovered enough to become infirmarian and then sacristan, but chronic health problems persisted. She died on April 16, 1879, at the age of 35. Bernadette Soubirous was canonized in 1933.
Reflection Millions of people have come to the spring Bernadette uncovered for healing of body and spirit.
Saint Bernadette came from a very poor family in France and was the oldest of nine children. Our Lady appeared to Bernadette, 14 years old at the time, beginning on February 11, 1858. At the Grotto of Massabielle, Bernadette saw “a small lady in white” who asked her to return each day, to receive a series of 18 visions. Her family and townspeople were divided over what was happening: some believed that it was a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary while others demanded that Bernadette be institutionalized. She was arrested at one point and interrogated, but Bernadette remained calm and was consistent in her telling of what was happening.
On February 24th, Saint Bernadette received a message from the Lady: “Penance, penance, penance…” During the following few days, she was commanded to dig at the grotto and then a spring of clear water began to flow. During the next few visions, the Lady told Bernadette to go to the Parish Priest and ask that he build her a Chapel at the Grotto. The Priest in turn commanded Bernadette to ask the Lady her name and also to ask for a sign. Finally, on March 25th, the Lady declared to Saint Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Four years earlier, Pope Pius IX had declared the infallible dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Bernadette’s family, Priest, and friends all later testified that she would never have heard the term before in her life.
After the conclusion of the visions, Saint Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity at the age of 22. She disliked the attention that she received because of the visions and lived the simple life of a consecrated Religious until she died from tuberculosis at the age of 35. As part of the canonization process, her body was exhumed three separate times, on September 22, 1909, April 3,1919, and finally on April 18, 1925, when she was moved to the crystal casket. Her body was pronounced by the church as officially “incorrupt". She was canonized as a Saint of the Church by Pope Pius XI on December 8, 1933, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
In her messages to Saint Bernadette, Our Lady emphasized prayer and penance for the sins of mankind. The visions also call to mind the love that Our Lady has for God’s people. May we always cherish the gift of God’s own Mother and call upon her when we are in trouble or in need. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
THE UNDENIABLY BEAUTIFUL 145-YEAR-OLD BODY of Bernadette Soubirous is displayed in a purpose-built crystal coffin, housed in a chapel at the abbey where she served as a nun
