Saint Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879)
Patroness of Lourdes
Bernadette was born on January 7, 1844, in Lourdes, France. She was the first born child of Francois and Louise Soubirous. She was baptized Mary Bernard. At the time of her birth, Francois was a miller, operating a mill which had belonged to his wife’s people. He was a good-natured, easy-going man but without any business know-how. Consequently, he lost the mill due to bad debts and during most of Bernadette’s childhood he was an odd job man. Add to this, within a short period of time, many children were born to the parents. Only five of whom survived infancy. After Bernadette, there was another girl, Toinette Marie, and three boys. Needless to say, the family lived in abject poverty, so poor that they reportedly lived in a cellar.
Bernadette was a sickly child who suffered from chronic severe asthma. She apparently had some difficulty learning as it is reported that she could neither write nor read even though she was fourteen years old. She was , however a poius little girl who loved God dearly. It was to this child that the Our Lady appeared; Here is the story:
On February 11, Bernadette, her sister Marie-Toinette and their friend Jeanne Abadie, all between the ages of eleven and fourteen, started out from their home in Lourdes to look for firewood. To reach their destination, they had to pass in front of a grotto in the rocky cliff of Massabielle and had also to cross a shallow stream. The two other girls crossed over, but Bernadette, who was wearing stockings because of her delicate health, bent down to remove the stockings when suddenly she heard a rustling sound as that made by a gust of wind. At first she paid only cursory attention but when she heard the same sound again, she looked intently towards the grotto. She saw the bushes violently agitated. Then, there floated out of the opening a golden cloud, and in the midst of this cloud, she perceived “a girl in white, no taller than I, who greeted me with a slight bow of the head”. The apparition, she said afterwords, was very beautiful. It was clad in white with a blue girdle, whilst a long rosary hung over her arm. The figure seemed to the child ,to invite her to pray. Bernadette knelt down and taking her rosary out of her pocket, began to pray. The apparition likewise took the rosary in her hand and passed the beads through her fingers. Her lips, however, did not move. No words were exchanged. At the end of the five decades, the figure withdrew into the shadow and disappeared.
When the other two children came back and found Bernadette on her knees, they laughed at her. She told her sister what she had seen and made her promise not to tell; but Toinette Marie told her mother that evening. After questioning Bernadette on the matter, her mother thought it might be a soul from Purgatory and forbade her to return to the Grotto.
Two days later, with permission from her father and accompanied by her mother, she returned to the Grotto, armed with holy water in a bottle. When the vision appeared, Bernadette went forward and threw some holy water towards it saying at the same time, “If you come from God, come nearer.” The vision advanced a little. The apparition asked Bernadette to continue to go to the Grotto daily for a fortnight. The apparition also said, “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next”.
No one believed her story. Not her relatives, nor the nuns who taught her catechism lessons.
After the news spread, the police and city authorities began to take an interest. Bernadette was prohibited by her parents and police commissioner Jacomet to ever go there again, but she went anyway.
On 24 February the apparition asked for prayer and penitence for the conversion of sinners. The next day, Bernadette was asked to dig in the ground and drink the water of the spring she found there. This is the miraculous spring which to date is a source of comfort and healing to numerous pilgrims.
On another occasion, Bernadette was bidden to tell the clergy that a chapel should be built and a procession held. She went to the ‘cure’ who received her very harshly as he apparently did not believe in the veracity of the apparition.
On March 25, the day of the Annunciation, Bernadette started for the grotto very early in the morning. When Our Lady appeared, Bernadette asked. “Would you kindly tell me who you are?” Our Lady, joining her hands together and raising her eyes to heaven, answered: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. (“que soy era immaculate concepciou”).
The eighteenth and the final apparition was on July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Bernadette lived for twenty one years after the last apparition.
At Lourdes, miracles are witnessed. Many people are cured of their varied ailments.
An imposing basilica, known as the Church of the Rosary, now stands on top of the rock where the apparition took place.
For more on the Saint,
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Hail Mary conceived without sin.
Pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Saint Bernadette,
Pray for us!