Saint Bernadette (1844-79) and the apparitions at Lourdes
Childhood
She was born on 7 January 1844, and
although christened Marie-Bernard, from childhood she was called
Bernadette.
She was the first child of poor parents living in difficult
conditions, Francois and Louise Soubirous.
Louise worked hard as a
laundress and also worked in the fields when she could. She was diligent
in her Catholic observances.
Francois was good-natured man, worked as a
miller but was inclined to alcohol.
After Bernadette, there was another
girl, Toinette Marie, and three boys.
As she grew, Bernadette cared for
her younger siblings, and helped in their moral and religious
training.
She went to tend animals for a family friend at nearby Bartres
but returned to Lourdes in January 1858 worried that she had not yet
received her First Communion.
Only then did she begin to attend the free
school run by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction.
First apparitions
It was a cold day on 11th
February 1858.
Bernadette went with her nine-year old sister Toinette
Marie, and a twelve-year-old neighbour’s child Marie Abadie to collect
firewood.
The two younger ones had taken off their shoes to wade across a
stream and Bernadette got left behind.
Suddenly she heard the noise of a
sudden rush of wind and saw branches moving in the grotto.
Above stood a
beautiful young girl in a niche in the rock, dressed in a white robe,
with a blue girdle and a white veil on her head.
She had golden roses on
her bare feet.
She smiled silently and beckoned to Bernadette, who went
down on her knees, took out her rosary from her pocket and began to say
her beads.
The Lady also had a rosary, but she allowed Bernadette to
recite the decade and joined in only at the Gloria.
When the rosary ended, the Lady disappeared.
When the other girls came back, they saw Bernadette still kneeling
and in a trance.
They thought she was trying to escape gathering timber
and began to chide her.
At first Bernadette said nothing, but on the way
home she could not hold her secret.
She asked them not to tell her
mother, but Toinette could not keep it back and soon the story spread.
Bernadette wanted to go back next day, but her mother said no.
The following Sunday
On the following Sunday when
she asked if she might go to the grotto again, her father told her to
take a bottle of holy water with her.
She went with several little
friends and knelt at the grotto.
She saw the vision again, but the
others saw nothing.
News spread in the town.
Her teacher and the mother
superior at the convent forbade her to talk or even think about it.
Third apparition
The following Thursday, 18th
February, Bernadette went with two women who thought the lady might be
the spirit of a young friend of theirs who had died a few months
previously.
This time the Lady smiled to Bernadette and spoke.
She asked
her to come every day for fifteen days.
Bernadette promised she
would, if she was allowed.
Bernadette's parents did not object.
Questioned by police
The following day her mother
and aunt went with her, and on later visits great crowds of people
gathered at Massabielle, hoping to see or hear something miraculous.
The
excitement increased.
Bernadette was brought to the police-station for
questioning but she didn't change her story.
A stream bursts out where she digs
The
following Sunday, a number of people gathered with Bernadette.
This
time the Lady told her: "You will pray to God for sinners". On 26th
February, while she was caught up in the vision, Our Lady told
Bernadette to dig with her hands on the ground inside the grotto, to
drink the water and wash her face.
Bernadette did as she was told.
A trickle of water appeared and when the lady told her, she drank it and
bathed her face.
Next day a steady stream was flowing from where
there never had been a well or a river before.
It has remained to this
day and is the source of the water of all the baths at Lourdes.
Those
present regarded this as a miracle.
"I am the Immaculate Conception"
On 2nd March
Bernadette saw the Lady for the thirteenth time.
This time she asked
Bernadette to tell the priests to build a chapel and have a procession
at the place.
Bernadette went to the parish priest, Fr Dominique
Peyramale.
He repimanded her and did not want to hear what she was
saying.
He insisted that Bernadette ask the Lady to identify herself.
On
25th March, the feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette went to the
grotto at dawn and when the lady appeared she asked: "Would you kindly
tell me who you are?"
She repeated the question twice more and the Lady
replied: "I am the Immaculate Conception. I want a chapel here."
No deception
When Bernadette reported this reply,
it caused a fever of excitement.
Four years previously Pope Pius IX had
solemnly proclaimed in Rome that Our Lady was preserved free from all
stain of original sin, called the dogma of the Immaculate Conception .
Bernadette could not easily have known or heard such words as at that
time it was something that would only have been discussed by priests.
Last visions
After that there were only two other
visions - on 7th April and 16th July.
Many times afterwards, Bernadette
was often asked to repeat the story of the visions, but the
accounts never varied in any significant detail.
Recognition
By now the local people, after
seeing the miraculous new stream, frequently gathered at the place
wanting to turn it into a sanctuary.
The local authorities closed off
the area.
But news of the apparitions and miracles spread and soon the
Church authorities were won over to believing Bernadette.
It is said
that the Empress Eugenie heard what was happening and may have
influenced her husband Napoleon III to intervene.
At any rate on 5th
October the grotto was reopened.
A statue in the grotto and a basilica
The
following year thousands of pilgrims were thronging to Lourdes.
A statue
of Our Lady was erected at the grotto in 1864; Fr Peyremale had now
become Bernadette's advocate with the bishop of Pau and helped raise
money for a basilica that was built nearby and consecrated in 1876.
A
second church at the base of the basilica was erected and consecrated in
1901.
Landscaping and architecture turned the whole area into an
impressive sanctuary against a background of great natural beauty.
Bernadette goes to a convent in Nevers
Meanwhile
Bernadette was staying at the local convent of the Sisters of Charity
and Christian Instruction (Notre Dame) and endured the intrusions on her
privacy as patiently as she could.
At twenty she decided to join the
order and soon went to Nevers, the motherhouse in central France to do
her novitiate.
Her novice-mistress here had been her teacher at Lourdes
and was determined not to allow Bernadette become proud because of her
visions.
Sympathetic nature
Bernadette applied herself
seriously and learned to perform her tasks with humility.
Her
sympathetic nature made her popular with sick people, and she was
appointed assistant infirmarian.
Suffering from chronic asthma
herself, she asked for water from the Lourdes spring during a severe
attack.
Her symptoms subsided permanently.
Good humour
Visitors and celebrities came to the
convent and she did not want to be locked away.
She had a cunning and
good humoured way of dealing with intrusions.
One day a visitor stopped
her as she was passing along a corridor and asked where she could get a
glimpse of Sister Bernadette.
The little nun said, "Just watch that
doorway and soon you will see her going through."
She then walked on and
slipped through the door.
Illness
Again she became ill - this time a
tumour on her knee, which became so painful she was given a
different job - in the sacristy.
Here she showed skills in needlework
and a talent for the embroidery of vestments.
After she made her final
vows in 1878, her energy became so low she was confined to a wheelchair
and often to bed, but she continued her needlework.
Death and canonisation
Bernadette died on 16th
April 1879.
Her body was put in a casket, which was sealed and then
buried near the chapel of St. Joseph in the convent grounds.
It was
exhumed in 1908 by a commission to examine Bernadette's life and
character and was found to be intact and uncorrupted.
Since then it
reposes in a glass reliquary in the convent chapel.
She was beatified in
June 1925 and was canonised by Pope Pius XI on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8th December 1933.