The Catholic Church celebrated the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes this past weekend. What a beautiful celebration of how loved we are by Mary, the Mother of God. Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 in Lourdes, France. Bernadette was an unlikely girl for Mary appear to upon first glance. She was poor, sickly, and a child living a very simple life with her family in a small French village. When you start to consider others Mary has appeared to (Juan Diego, the three visionaries in Fatima, and countless others) we start to see that it is not unlikely after all that Mary would appear to a little girl who had very little measured by the standards of the society she lived in. Mary always appears to the humble servants and those who are pure in heart. Who better a vessel than a child to receive the messages of our beautiful Mother?
Bernadette was unable to read or write or speak French, and Catechism was taught only in French. She went to Mass, but she was not allowed to receive Holy Communion with her friends. She was later prepared for communion by Fr. Pomian. Shortly after at the age of 14, she was blessed with eighteen divine apparitions, and the world is forever changed and will never forget Bernadette.
Here is a short summary of her appearances taken from Catholic Online:
"On Thursday, February 11, 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, when a very beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha).
The woman wore blue and white and smiled at Bernadette before making the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold. Bernadette fell to her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray. Bernadette later described the woman as "uo petito damizelo," meaning "a small young lady. Though her sister and friend claimed they were unable to see her, Bernadette knew what she saw was real.
Three days later, Bernadette, her sister Marie, and other girls returned to the grotto, where Bernadette immediately knelt, saying she could see "aquero" again. She fell into a trance and one girl threw holy water at the niche and another threw a rock that shattered on the ground. It was then that the apparition disappeared.
On February 18, Bernadette said "the vision" asked her to return to the grotto each day for a fortnight. With each visit, Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary and the period of daily visions became known as "la Quinzaine sacrée," meaning "holy fortnight."
When Bernadette began to visit the grotto, her parents were embarrassed and attempted to stop her, but were unable to do so. On February 25, Bernadette claimed to have had a life-changing vision.
The vision had told her "to drink the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb that grew there" as an act of penance. The next day, the grotto's muddy waters had been cleared, and fresh, clear water flowed.
On March 2, at the thirteenth of the apparitions, Bernadette told her family the lady sad "a chapel should be built and a procession formed.
During her sixteenth vision, which Bernadette claims to have experienced for over an hour, was on March 25. Bernadette claimed she had asked the woman her name, but her question was only met with a smile. Bernadette asked again, three more times, and finally, the woman said, "I am the Immaculate Conception."
Though many townspeople believed she had indeed been seeing the Holy Virgin, Bernadette's story created a division in her town. Many believed she was telling the truth, while others believed she had a mental illness and demanded she be put in a mental asylum. Some believed Bernadette's visions meant she needed to pray for penance.
Church authorities and the French government rigorously interviewed the girl, and by 1862 they confirmed she spoke truth. Since Bernadette first caused the spring to produce clean water, 69 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and after what the Church claimed were "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations," no one was able to explain what caused the cures.
The Lourdes Commission that initially examined Bernadette, ran an analysis on the water but were only able to determine it contained a high mineral content. Bernadette believed it was faith and prayer that was responsible for curing the sick.
Bernadette asked the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. Many other chapels and churches has been built around it, including the Basilica of St. Pius X, which can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France."
There are so many lessons we can take from St. Bernadette and the messages Mary bestowed upon her. She was devoted to Christ and Our Lady, and persisted following through with Mary's request to build a chapel on the site of the appearances. All of these things happened because Bernadette loved our Lady and followed her heart. The largest lesson I take away from St. Bernadette is how we should all remain childlike in the ways we worship and pray. We should approach the Eucharist with awe and wonder, much like Bernadette, who was finally granted that privilege after she starting sharing her visions with her confessor which had been previously denied an opportunity to be catechized because she was illiterate. We take for granted the easy access we have to receiving the sacraments. What wonderful example for us all to follow. We should be thankful and give praise that we live in a place and time where the sacramements are readily available to us if we desire them.
St. Bernadette's body lies incorrupt at The Chapel of Saint Gidard in Nevers, France. She died at the age of 35 from health problems related to lung disease. The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was erected in 1872 in Lourdes, France as a tribute to the request Mary made to Bernadette to build a chapel in her honor for pilgrims to come and experience the deep love and healing that came from the spot she appeared. Millions of visitors come each year to pray and venerate the site where our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette.
St. Bernadette, Pray for Us
Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for Us
