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Spirituality & Religious Studies @spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com@spiritualityreligiousstudies.wordpress.com · 2026-07-31 · 08:08 UTC

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Also known as Bernadette of Lourdes; religious name: Marie-Bernarde.

She was a miller’s daughter from Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrenees in France. She’s best known for having Marian apparitions of a “young lady” who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby grotto. These Marian apparitions occurred between February 11th & July 16, 1858, & the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception.”

After an investigation, Bernadette’s reports were eventually declared “worthy of belief” on February 18, 1862, & the Marian appartion became as Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1866, Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers at their convent in Nevers where she spent the last years of her life.

Her body is said by the Catholic Church to remain internally incorrupt. The grotto where the apparitions occurred became a major ligrimage site & Marian shrine known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, attracting around 5 million pilgrims do all denominations each year.

Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette on June 14, 1925 & 8 years later canonized her on December 8, 1933. Her feast day is April 16, the date of her death. Initially specified her feast day as February 18, the day that Mary promised to make her happy, not in this life, but in the other/next.

She was born of January 7, 1844 & baptized at the local parish church (St. Pierre’s) 2 days after her birth (which was her parents’ wedding anniversary). She learned very little French, only studying French in school after 13. At that time, she could only read & write very little due to her frequent illness.

She spoke the language of Occitan. It was spoken by the local population of the Pyreness region at that time & to a residual degree today. It’s sometimes called Provencal.

On February 11, 1858, a 14 year old Bernadette was out collecting firewood with her sister, Toinette, & a friend near the grotto of Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha) when she experienced her 1st vision/apparition. When the other girls crossed a little stream in front of the grotto & walked on, Bernadette stayed behind. Because she was looking for a place to cross the stream so she wouldn’t get her stockings wet.

She finally sat down to take her shoes off so she could cross the stream. She was lowering her stocking when she heard the sound of rushing wind. But nothing moved. A wild rose in a natural niche in the did move. From the niche (or a dark alcove behind it) “came a dazzling light, & a white figure.” Her sister, & friend, said they didn’t see anything.

On February 14th (Valentine’s Day), after Sunday Mass, Bernadette with her sister Marie & some other girls went back to the grotto. Bernadette knelt down immediately, saying she saw the apparition again. 1 of the girls threw holy water at the niche.

Another threw a rock from that shattered on the ground the apparition disappeared. On her next visit (February 18), Bernadette said that “the vision” asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight (or 14 days). This period of almost daily visions came to be known as la Quinzaine sacree (“holy fortnight”). Initially, Bernadette’s parents (especially her mom) were embarrassed & tried to forbid her to go.

The supposed apparition didn’t identify herself in the 17th vision. Although the townspeople who believed she was telling the truth assumed she saw the Virgin Mary, Bernadette never claimed it to be Mary, consistently using the word aquero (Gascon Occitan for “that”). She described the lady as wearing a white veil, a blue girdle, & with a yellow rose on each foot.

Bernadette’s story caused a sensation among the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not she was telling the truth. Some believed her to have a mental illness & demanded she put in an asylum. On February 25, she explained that the vision had told her “to drink of the water of the water of the spring, to wash in it & to eat the herb that grew there,” as an act of penance.

To everyone’s surprise, the next day the grotto was no longer muddy but clear water flowed. On March 2, at the 13th apparition, Bernadette told her family that the lady said that “a chapel should be built & a procession.”

The 16th vision, which Bernadette stated went on for over an hour, was on March 25. According to her account, during that visitation, she again asked for her name. But the lady just smiled back. She repeated the question 3 more times & finally heard the lady say, in Gascon Occitan, “I’m the Immaculate Conception.”

Despite being rigorously interviewed by officials of both the Catholic Church & the French government, she stuck consistently to her story. On April 7, Bernadette had another vision, during which her hand was apparently not burnt while being in contact with the flame of a candle for several minutes.

On June 8, 1858, the mayor of Lourdes decided to barricade the grotto & put guards to prevent public access. On July 16, Bernadette came back to see the grotto from the other side of the river & experienced her 18th, & last, apparition of the lady.

After investigation, Catholic Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862. In the 160 years since Bernadette dug up the in the spring, 72 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau as “inexplicable.”

Bernadette’s request to the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions eventually gave rise to a number of chapels & churches at Lourdes. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now 1 of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world.

1 of the churches built at the site, the Basilica of St. Pius X, can accommodate 25,000 people & was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France. In 2013, 715,000 & in 2016, 570,000 pilgrims attended pilgrimage events.

Bernadette disliked the attention she was attracting, she went to the hospice school run by the Sisteres of Charity of Nevers where she had learned to read & write. Although she considered joining the Carmelites, her health precluded her from entering any of the strict contemplative orders.

On July 29, 1866, with 42 other candidates, she took the religious habit of a postulant & joined the Sisters of Charity at their mother house, the St. Gildard Convent at Nevers. The Mother Superior at the time gave her the name Marie-Bernarde in honor of her godmother who was named “Bernarde.”

Bernadette repent the rest of her brief life at the mother house, working as an assistant in the infirmary & later as a sacristan, creating ornate embroidery for altar cloths & vestments. A sacristan is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments & other church furnishings, sacred vessels, & parish records. Her contemporaries admired her humility & spirit of sacrifice.

One day, asked about the apparitions, she said: “The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.” Bernardette had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes.

But wasn’t present for the consecration of the Bascilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876. Bernadette’s childhood bout of cholera left her with severe, chronic asthma, & eventually she contracted tuberculosis of the lungs & bones. For several months prior to her death, she was unable to take an active part in convent life. She eventually died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on April 26, 1879 (Easter Wednesday), while praying the Holy Rosary.

On her deathbed, as she suffered from severe pain & in keeping with the Virgin Mary’s admonition of “Penance, Penance, Penance,” Bernadette proclaimed that “all this is good for Heaven.” Her final words were, “Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me.” Bernadette’s body was laid to rest in the St. Joseph Chapel, in the grounds of her convent.

Bernadette was declared blessed on June 14, 1921 by Pope Pius XI. She was canonized by Pius XI on December 8, 1933, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. She’s celebrated in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church of April 16.

In France, her liturgical celebration is an optional memorial & is held on February 18, which commemorates Bernadette’s 3rd vision. During which the “lady” told her that she doesn’t promise to make happy in this world, but in the other.

Bishop Gauthey of Nevers & the Catholic Church exhumed Bernadette’s body on September 22, 1909. This is in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, 2 doctors & a sister of the community. They claimed that although the crucifix in her hand & her rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared incorrupt – preserved from decomposition. This was cited as 1 of the miracles to support her canonization.

They washed & reclothed her body before re-burial in the Chapel of St. Joseph in a new double casket. The church exhumed the corpse a 2nd time on April 3, 1919, on the occasion of the approval of Bernadette’s canonization. Again, he body was returned to the vault of St. Joseph’s chapel.

In 1925, the church exhumed the body for a 3rd time. They took relics, which was sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded to make a wax mask based on the imprints & on some genuine photos to be placed on her body. This was common practice for relics in France as it was feared that the blackish tinge to the face & the sunken eyes & nose would be viewed as corruption by the wax casts. The remains were then placed in a gold & crystal reliquary in the Chapel of St. Bernadette at the main church of the convent.

In 1970, the convent at Nevers was converted into a pilgrimage center dedicated to Bernadette, run by volunteers & a few sisters & known as Espace Bernadette Soubirous Nevers. In the spring of 2015, the town of Lourdes lobbied for Bernadette’s remains to be returned to Lourdes, a move opposed by the city of Nevers.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes has a few bodily relics which traveled in several European dioseses from 2017 to be exposed for the veneration of people. In 2019, a new reliquary was built for the travel of the relics. In 2022, the reliquary visited the United States & the United Kingdom.

The relics 1st travedled to the United States from April-August 2022, visiting around 30 dioceses. In September & October 2022, the relics were exposed in around 50 places in England, Scotland, & Wales, including in the Westminster Cathedral & at the Carfin Lourdes Grotto.

The town of Lourdes became a major international pilgrimage sites attracting millions of visitors each year. Several churches & infrastructures were built around the cave where the apparitions occurred, forming together the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The sanctuary is reputed for the Loudes water steaming inside the cave from a spring discovered by Bernadette during the apparitions, which is said to have healing properties, attracting many sick pilgrims. The sanctuary also has a museum called the St. Bernadette Museum, dedicated to the history of the apparitions.

In the city center of Lourdes, pilgrims can visit the house where Bernadette was born & the room where here family was staying at the time of the apparitions. The Espace Bernadette Sourbirous Nevers is dedicated to her memory. This is where her body has been kept after her death. Her body is now exposed for the veneration of visitors. The city of Nevers also has a museum dedicated to the life of Bernadette, called the “Bernadette Museum.”

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Live Updates: Players to watch before the NBA season resumes tomorrow https://www.rawchili.com/nba/613152/ #2026 #Basketball #CelticsWarriors #February18 #HugoGonzalez #KristapsPorzingis #NBA #NBALiveBlog #NBAPlayoffs #PistonsKnicks

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Live Updates: Players to watch before the NBA season resumes tomorrow

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MLB News @[email protected] · 2026-02-18 · 10:24 UTC

Cubs announcer Harry Caray dies after collapsing on Valentine’s Day https://www.rawchili.com/mlb/579059/ #AbbieHoffman #AcademyAwards #acquitted #Baseball #BenHecht #Chicago #ChicagoCubs #ChicagoHistory #ChicagoSeven #ChicagoCubs #corruption #Cubs #EvanLysacek #February18 #HarryCaray #MichaelMadigan #MLB #olympics #oscar #RodBlagojevich #ShaniDavis #trial #underworld #WinterOlympics

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