Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes, Southern France on 7th January 1844 to François Soubirous and Millerand Louise Castérot. Her father was jailed in ‘The Cachot’ for eight years for stealing bread from a local baker. A terrible drought left the surrounding areas with no wheat and a cholera epidemic took many lives. Bernadette was infected and suffered from persistent ill health all her life time. She was the eldest of five children. Extreme poverty left the family depending on a relative for accommodation. Despite being isolated by the locals because of their circumstances and simplicity, she experienced deep love from her parents. Her sickness affected her schooling; she could hardly read and write. She was not allowed to receive Holy Communion although she turned 14. Her sickness left her weak and asthmatic and looked small for her age.
From a very early age she showed immense faith in God. In November 1857, she was sent to Batrés, a little village four miles from Lourdes to tend sheep on her aunt’s farm. However her desire to receive first Holy Communion brought her back to Lourdes in 1858.
One Thursday, the 11th of February 1858 while out walking with her sister and a friend near a grotto called Massabielle, Bernadette was unable to keep up with them. She was removing her shoes and socks to cross the stream that flowed in the Grotto when she suddenly heard a gust wind and looking up above a rose bush, she saw a lady dressed in blue and white with yellow roses covering her feet. In her hand was a Rosary of ivory and gold. This was the first of the 18 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette. During these apparitions, she prayed the Rosary with the Lady and conversed with her. On February 19th, Bernadette lit a candle at the Grotto, a tradition which to this day sees millions of pilgrims with candles lit each year. Word began to get round as the Religious and police officials started questioning these apparitions. On Her eighth visit, the massage she gave to Bernadette was “Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners, Kiss the ground as an act of penance”.
The following day, the Lady told her to drink from a ‘spring’, pointing to a spot. To Bernadette, it was a muddy area. As she drank the ‘muddy water’ the crowd appalled her. A small spring suddenly began to flow from that spot, a friend of Bernadette plunged her dislocated arm into the spring and it healed instantly. Bernadette was told to give a message to the Parish Priest, Abbé Peyramale to build a chapel at the Grotto. Still not convinced, the priest asked for the name of the Lady.
On Thursday 25th March, the feast of Annunciation, the lady told Bernadette, “I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION”. This theological expression had been assigned to the Blessed Virgin just four years earlier. In 1854, Pope Pius IX declared this as a truth of the Catholic Faith (Dogma) because there was no way Bernadette could have known this as her words left him puzzled. The Bishop of Tarbes started enquiry into the apparitions and declared them as authentic in 1862. Many who were sick were cured from the well, and there was a direct link with these Apparitions.
She was hounded much by the public and civic officials until at last, she was protected in a convent of nuns. In 1866, Bernadette joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nervers and received the name ‘Sister Marie-Bernard’. She still battled with ill health and died at the convent at the age of 35 on April 16th 1879. On the 14th of June 1925, in the Consistory Hall, Pope Pius XI declared her blessed and was beatified. She was canonized on the 8th of December 1933. The uncorrupted body of St. Bernadette Soubirous lies in a glass reliquary in the Convent of St. Gildard in Nevers, France, where it can be seen today.
[picture of her sisterhood]
The FEAST DAY of St. Bernadette Soubirous is observed every 11TH FEBRUARY as this day marks the first of the 18 apparitions of the Immaculate Conception at the Grotto in Massabielle.