The Life
Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was born in 1844 in Lourdes, a small market town in the Pyrenees, the eldest child of a miller who had fallen into poverty. By the time she was 14, the family had been reduced to living in the cachot — a former prison cell, damp and unsanitary — four people in a single room. Bernadette was illiterate, spoke only patois, suffered from severe asthma, and was considered simple by most people who knew her.
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, she experienced eighteen apparitions of a young woman at the grotto of Massabielle, on the bank of the Gave de Pau river just outside Lourdes. The woman was beautiful, dressed in white with a blue sash, and identified herself (at Bernadette's repeated request for her name) on March 25 — the feast of the Annunciation — with the words: I am the Immaculate Conception. The Pope had defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception just four years earlier, in 1854. Bernadette did not know what the words meant; she repeated them to the priest without understanding them.
The apparitions included the command to dig in the mud beneath the grotto — which produced the spring that still flows at Lourdes today, supplying water to the baths where thousands of reported cures have occurred. The crowds grew enormous. The local authorities — civil and ecclesiastical — were sceptical and investigated thoroughly. The apparitions were eventually confirmed by the Bishop of Tarbes in 1862.
Bernadette lived the rest of her life in obscurity. She entered the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame at Nevers in 1866 and spent the remaining years of her life there, suffering from tuberculosis of the bone and various other illnesses. She was a difficult patient — with a sharp tongue and a clear preference for being left alone. She died in 1879 at age 35. She was canonized in 1933. Her body remains incorrupt and is displayed in a glass reliquary at Nevers.
The Eighteen Apparitions — what she saw
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Bernadette saw the Lady eighteen times at the grotto of Massabielle. The apparitions varied in length and content; some included specific instructions (dig in the mud, tell the priests to build a chapel here, drink from the spring), others were entirely silent — the Lady and Bernadette regarding each other. Bernadette was consistent under interrogation from the civil authorities, the police, the priests, and the bishop's commission. She described what she saw with precision and never embellished. She said: I was sent to tell you. Not to make you believe. I Am the Immaculate Conception At Bernadette's repeated request to know her name, the Lady responded: I am the Immaculate Conception. The phrase was theologically precise and had been defined as Catholic dogma just four years earlier by Pius IX. Bernadette could not have invented it: she was illiterate, spoke only patois, and did not understand the words she repeated to the parish priest (who turned pale when he heard them). The identification of the apparition with the defined doctrine of the Immaculate Conception — by a girl who did not understand what she was saying — is one of the theologically significant features of the Lourdes apparitions. The Spring — and the cures During one of the apparitions, the Lady told Bernadette to dig in the mud beneath the grotto. She dug; a trickle of water appeared. The spring now flows at Lourdes at approximately 27,000 gallons per day and supplies the baths in which sick pilgrims immerse themselves. Since 1858, the Catholic Church has officially recognized 70 miraculous cures at Lourdes after rigorous medical investigation. Thousands more cures are claimed but not formally examined. The Medical Bureau of Lourdes maintains a rigorous scientific investigation process for any claimed cure. Nevers — obscurity and the incorrupt body Bernadette entered the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame at Nevers in 1866 and is reported to have said: I will spend my heaven doing good on earth — but no, that was Therese. Bernadette's comment was more characteristic: she wanted to be left alone. She suffered greatly in the convent from tuberculosis of the bone, was not always an easy patient, and was occasionally treated harshly by her superiors. She died in 1879. When her body was exhumed in 1909 for the beatification investigation, it was found incorrupt. It remains on display in a glass reliquary at the convent in Nevers — one of the most strikingly preserved incorrupt bodies of any saint.
Walk in Their Footsteps
Pilgrimage sites connected to St Bernadette Soubirous
Ask St Bernadette Soubirous to Intercede
Bring these intentions to this saint in prayer:
Bernadette saw what she saw. She was interrogated by the police, cross-examined by the priests, examined by the bishop's commission, and she said the same thing each time: I saw a beautiful Lady. She said she was sent to tell them, not to make them believe. After the apparitions ended, she entered a convent and suffered for thirteen years and died at 35. The visions were not the reward for her poverty; they were the beginning of a different kind of poverty. She was used as the vessel for a message and then put back on the shelf.
“For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Bernadette, who saw the Lady — take me to the grotto. Not the physical grotto (though that too, one day), but the interior place where the spring flows and the Lady stands in the niche and someone small and sick and poor is told: I have a message for you. Let me hear it. Lead me to dig in the mud where the water is. Amen.