February 11, OUR LADY OF LOURDES
Life of St. Bernadette
Religious, example of humility and trust in God
Her Body remains incorrupt
Humble and sickly childhood but full of piety.
St. Bernadette was born on January 7, 1844 in the small village of Lourdes, in the beautiful mountains of the French Pyrenees. At her baptism she was given the name Marie-Bernard, but since she was a little girl she was called by the diminutive “Bernadette”.
Her father Francis was an honest and upright man but not very capable in business. He worked as a miller for the Casterots, a well-to-do family. He lived with his family in the Boly mill. His mother, Louise Casterot, married at the age of 16. It was thought that her future would be secure, but things did not turn out that way. When customers came to mill their wheat, the young couple served them a full meal. This could be done in times of plenty, but it became a crisis in times of hardship.
Debts forced the Soubirous family to leave the mill and move into a cell, owned by a cousin of Francis, which had been part of a prison. In one room lived the six of them, the father, the mother and the four children. The oldest were females of whom Bernadette was the first, after her came Toinette (two and a half years younger), and then the two boys, Jean-Marie and Justin. To get the meager bread for the children, François and Louise took every kind of job they could find.
When Bernadette was born, the family still had resources. Proof of this is that the child was entrusted to a wet nurse for six months. The wet nurse, named Marie Avarant and married Lagues, lived in Bartres, in the countryside 5 miles from Lourdes. Marie Lagues nursed Bernadette for 15 months, from June 1844 to October 1845. In accordance with custom the two families were very close to each other.
The economic difficulties of the Soubirous family gave Marie the opportunity to ask to take charge of Bernadette. The pretext was that she would help her with other children, but in reality she wanted her to shepherd sheep. She was thus left as a hired shepherdess but without pay.
When she went to Bartres, she was promised that she could prepare with the local priest for her First Communion. She was almost 14 years old and was the only girl of her age in Lourdes who had not received it. But seeing that she was very good at her job, she was forced to spend more time tending the sheep, which did not allow her to attend catechism classes. The two children of the family where she lived left every morning for catechism classes, while she was required to go to the fields to shepherd. This pained her deeply in her heart.
A question has arisen about Bernadette's intelligence. Many suggest that she was not intelligent. It is true that she learned with difficulty and even she herself said that she had a “bad head”, meaning that she had a poor memory. Having been denied the possibility of studying, Bernadette, at 13 years of age, still did not know how to read or write. The teacher Jean Barbet, who once taught her catechism, said of her: “Bernadette has difficulty in retaining the words of the catechism because she cannot study them, since she cannot read, but she makes a great effort to understand the meaning of the explanations. Moreover, she is very attentive and, especially, very pious and modest”. Undoubtedly Bernadette had known how to cultivate a great treasure of God: a heart adorned with the most beautiful Christian virtues: innocence, kindness, goodness, charity and gentleness.
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The priest of Bartres, Abbé Arder, although he left for a monastery shortly after Bernadette's arrival, in the few contacts he had with her he was able to grasp the excellence of her heart. He had great faith in the apparitions of La Salette (1846), which had occurred eleven years earlier, and so he compared Bernadette to the children of La Salette.
He said: “She seems to me like a flower all wrapped in divine perfume. I assure you that on many occasions when I have seen her, I have thought of the children of La Salette. Certainly, if the Blessed Virgin appeared to Maximin and Melanie, she did so in order that they might become simple and pious like her.”
Neither ignorance, nor poverty, nor Bernadette's sickly appearance prevented him from appreciating simplicity and piety in her.
The priest said on one occasion: “Look at this little girl. When the Blessed Virgin wants to appear on earth, she chooses children like this one.”
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His words were prophetic because a few months later Our Lady began to appear to her in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes.
When Bernadette saw that her desire to prepare herself to receive Communion was not possible in Bartres, she asked Marie Lagues to allow her to go to Lourdes where she insisted to her parents to allow her to return home. She wanted to receive her First Communion and would have to begin catechism classes immediately if she wanted to receive it in 1858. His parents agreed and he returned to Lourdes on January 28, 1858, only 14 days before the first apparition of Our Lady.
It is important, therefore, to understand the reason why Bernadette was in Lourdes when she was 14 years old and the apparitions began: she was seeking with all her heart to receive Holy Communion. Our Lady visits a very pure soul full of love for her Son, a soul ready to make any sacrifice to carry out God's work. Bernadette, unable to receive communion, turns to Our Lady, prays the rosary daily and Our Lady opens the doors for her. Our Lady knows that She can trust her with the transcendent message that She wishes to communicate to the world.
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THE APPARITIONS AT LOURDES
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February 11, 1858, was the day chosen for heaven to be present on earth. That day would change forever, not only Bernadette's life, but it marked the beginning of a fountain of grace that flowed for all mankind. A fountain that only grows with time.
Bernadette's mother allowed Bernadette to go with her younger sister named Maria, and another girl, to the countryside to collect dry firewood. The preferred place to collect firewood was a field in front of the grotto. Bernadette, because of her physical frailty, stayed behind.
The other girls had already passed the stream, but Bernadette did not dare to go into the water because it was too cold. The others insisted that she do so, and when she began to take off her shoes, a very loud noise, like a strong wind, forced her to raise her head and look to all sides.
What is this! she said. The leaves of the trees were still.
The noise of the wind started again and became louder in the grotto. And there, at the bottom of the grotto, a wonderful apparition stood out in front of her. At this very moment the bells of the parish church began to ring and the singing of the Angelus could be heard.
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First Apparition:
A light resplendent as the sun, but sweet and gentle as everything that comes from heaven, a prodigiously beautiful Lady was seen by Bernadette. She was dressed in a white gown, shining and of an unknown fabric, adjusted at the waist with a blue ribbon; a long white veil fell down to her feet and wrapped around her whole body. Her feet, virginal and barefoot, seemed to rest on the wild rose bush. Two bright gold-colored roses covered the tops of the Blessed Virgin's feet. Her hands clasped together before her breast, She offered a position of fervent prayer; She held between Her fingers a long white and golden rosary with a beautiful golden cross.
Everything about Her radiated happiness, majesty, innocence, kindness, sweetness and peace. Her forehead was smooth and serene, Her eyes were light blue and full of love, and Her lips showed softness and gentleness. The Lady seemed to greet her tenderly as She bowed to Bernadette.
Bernadette reached for her rosary (which she always carried in her pocket), making, as if to defend herself, the sign of the cross, but her hand was paralyzed. At that moment Our Lady took the cross from the rosary and made the sign of the cross and told Bernadette to do as She did.
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At that moment her paralyzed arm was free. Our Lady began to pass the beads of the rosary through Her fingers and Bernadette began to pray hers. When She finished, Our Lady beckoned her to come closer and, extending Her arm, She gently bent down and smiled as if to say goodbye to Bernadette. The Vision had disappeared!
Bernadette asked the other girls if they had seen anything and when they said no, she told them about her experience and asked them to be quiet. But Bernadette's sister told her mother. The mother did not believe her and ordered Bernadette to stop imagining and that she was forbidden to return to the grotto.
That night, as they prayed the rosary as a family, Bernadette burst into tears, repeating her favorite invocation, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who come to you!”
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Second apparition:
On February 14, the girls insisted that they be given permission to return to the grotto. Everyone thought that what had happened to Bernadette was a trick of the devil, and so they told her to go to the grotto and sprinkle holy water. That way the demon would flee and they would be left alone.
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When they arrived at the grotto, Bernadette asked them to kneel down to pray the Rosary. Our Lady appeared again. Bernadette's face was transfigured. She threw the holy water and said: “If you come from God, come close to us”. The holy water reached Our Lady's feet and smiling more sweetly, She approached Bernadette. She took the rosary and crossed Herself with it. They both began to pray it.
At dusk already the whole population was commenting on the wonders that were happening in the grotto of Lourdes, but to the comments were joined the mockery, scorn and insults.
Third Apparition:
Bernadette's parents began to believe her since she had never lied and was characterized by her obedience. In addition, they were convinced by the naturalness with which she exposed the events and their smallest details.
On February 18, a lady and a nun wanted to accompany Bernadette to the grotto. They went with her first to the 5:30 a.m. Holy Mass and from there they went to the grotto. Bernadette walked so fast that it seemed as if a superior force was pushing her there.
She knelt down and began to pray the rosary, and let out a cry of joy when she saw Our Lady at the bottom of the grotto. She asked if her two companions could stay and Our Lady said yes. They also knelt down and began to pray while lighting a blessed candle.
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Bernadette passed a piece of paper to Our Lady asking Her to write down whatever She wished to communicate to her.
Our Lady said to her: “What I have to communicate to you is not necessary to write it down, just give me the gift of coming here for fifteen days in a row”. Bernadette promised Her and Our Lady replied: “I also promise to make you happy, not certainly in this world, but in the next”.
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The miraculous fortnight:
The rumor of the apparitions spread quickly and a large crowd flocked to the grotto.
February 19: Bernadette arrived at the grotto accompanied by her parents and a hundred people. From this day on, she went to every apparition with a lighted candle.
February 20: About 500 people accompanied her.
February 21: Several thousand people filled the area around the grotto. There was a moment when the apparition seemed to move backwards, as if sinking into the rock. In order not to lose sight of Her, Bernadette approached on her knees. She noticed that the Virgin had become sad. She asked her, “What is the matter with you, what can I do?
Our Lady replied: “Pray for sinners”.
Bernadette was the object of all kinds of mockery, persecutions and offenses. Even the civil authorities took action. The commissary came to pick her up for a long examination. He threatened to take her to jail if she continued to go to the grotto. One of the principal doctors of Lourdes devoted himself to study, observe and examine her. He came to the conclusion that Bernadette showed no signs of hallucination, hysteria or escape from reality. He said: “Here is an extraordinary fact, totally unknown to science and medicine”.
However, the persecutions did not end; the police continued to treat her indignantly. The Parish Priest of Lourdes defended her energetically. In all this Bernadette remained firm but humble, never taking a defensive position, never attacking anyone.
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February 22: Our Lady did not appear to her. Everyone made fun of Bernadette. She cried thinking that perhaps she had committed some fault and that was why Our Lady had not appeared to her. But she had the firm hope of seeing her again.
One of the things that surprised people the most was to see a humble and simple shepherdess, lacking proper education, greet Our Lady with grace and dignity at the end of the apparition. She was once asked, “Tell me, who taught you to make such graceful greetings?” “No one,” he replied, “I don't know how I must have greeted, I try to do it as the Vision does and She greets me in this way when She leaves.”
February 23: First time that Our Lady formulates a concrete order. In front of 10,000 people, Our Lady gives Bernadette a secret that concerns her alone and that she cannot reveal to anyone. She also taught her a prayer that She made her repeat, but that She did not want her to make known.
Our Lady said to her: “And now, my daughter, go and tell the priests that here, in this place, a Shrine must be erected, and that they must come in procession to it.”
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Bernadette immediately went to the church to give the message to the parish priest. The priest asked her the name of the Lady, to which Bernadette replied that she did not know.
After listening to her, the parish priest said to her: “You can understand that I cannot rely on your testimony alone; tell that great Lady to make Herself known; if She is the Virgin, let Her manifest it by a great miracle. Didn't you say that She appears to you on a wild rose bush? Then tell Her from me, if She wants a shrine, let Her make the rosebush bloom.
February 24: All the people wanted to know what would happen with the Parish Priest's request and if Our Lady would perform the miracle of the rose bush. Bernadette, as always, arrived at the grotto and knelt down, without paying any attention to the people who were curious.
Bernadette told Our Lady what the priest had asked her. The Virgin only smiled, without saying a word. Then She sent her to pray for sinners and exclaimed three times: “Penance, Penance, Penance! She made her repeat these words and Bernadette did so while crawling on her knees to the bottom of the grotto. There She revealed to her a personal secret and then disappeared.
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Bernadette, out of humility, did not tell all the details, but witnesses reported that she was also seen kissing the earth at intervals, Our Lady had told her: “You will pray for sinners... You will kiss the earth for the conversion of sinners”. As the Vision receded, Bernadette followed Her on her knees kissing the earth, and Bernadette turned to the assistants and motioned: “You too kiss the earth”.
From then on Bernadette was entrusted with the penance for sinners. One day Our Lady ordered her to go up and down the grotto several times on her knees, Our Lady's face was sad.
“Our Lady told me to do this for me and for others,” she said.
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February 25: “My daughter,” She said to her in the Vision, “I want to entrust to you only the last secret; like the other two, you will not reveal them to anyone in this world.
And now,” the Virgin said to her after a moment of silence, ”go and drink and wash your feet at the fountain, and eat of the grass that is there.
Bernadette looked around her because she did not see any fountain. She thought that Our Lady was sending her to the torrent and she went there.
The Virgin stopped her and said: “Don't go there, go to the fountain that is here”. She pointed to the bottom of the grotto.
Bernadette climbed up and, when she was near the rock, she looked for the fountain with her eyes, not finding it, and wanting to obey, she looked at the Virgin. At another sign Bernadette bent down and, digging the earth with her hand, she was able to make a hole in it. Suddenly the bottom of that small cavity was moistened and coming from unknown depths through the rocks, water appeared and soon filled the hole that could contain a glass of water.
Mixed with the muddy earth, Bernadette brought it three times to her lips, not resolving to drink it. But overcoming her natural repugnance to dirty water, she drank from it and wet her face as well. Everyone began to make fun of her and to say that now she had really gone mad. But, mysterious designs of God, with her weak hand Bernadette had just opened, without knowing it, the source of the greatest healings and miracles that have ever touched humanity
The miraculous water of Lourdes has been analyzed by skilled chemists: it is a virgin water, very pure, a natural water that lacks all thermal properties. Moreover, it has the peculiarity that no bacteria survive in it (it symbolizes the Immaculate Conception, in whose being there was never any stain of original or personal sin).
February 26: The miraculous water worked the first miracle.
The good parish priest of Lourdes had asked for a sign, and instead of the very small one he had asked for, Our Lady had just given him a very large one, and not only to him, but to the whole population.
The first miracle of healing
There was in Lourdes a poor quarry worker, named Bourriette, who twenty years before had had his left eye horribly mutilated by the explosion of a mine. He was a very honest and very Christian man. He sent his daughter to fetch water from the new fountain and began to pray, even though it was a little dirty, he rubbed his eye with it. He began to shout for joy... The black darkness had disappeared; he only had a slight cloud, which disappeared as he continued to wash himself. The doctors had said that he would never be cured. On examining him again, there was no choice but to call what had happened by its name: miracle. And the great thing was that the miracle had left the scars and deep wounds, but had still restored his sight. Many miracles continue to happen in Lourdes, so that in the sanctuary there is always a crowd of sick people.
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The first candle in the grotto of Lourdes
One day at the end of the apparition, Bernadette approached her aunt who was accompanying her and said: “Do you want to give me a candle and allow me to leave it in the grotto? Then she went to the bottom of the grotto and there she left it burning, leaning it against the rock.
This candle was perhaps at one time the only one; now there are millions that burn constantly before the image of the Virgin. The lighted candle is a beautiful symbol: the white and virgin wax from which it is formed, has always represented the humanity that Christ took from Mary, and that united to the Divinity is the light of the world. Like the wax of the candle, this sacred humanity will be consumed before God in adoration, supplication and thanksgiving. The light of the candle, resplendent and radiant, symbolizes the Divinity of the Son of Mary. The lighted candle also represents the Christian, who, enlightened by faith, must be consumed before God as a victim of penance and love.
On March 2, Bernadette went again to see the parish priest of Lourdes, reminding him of Our Lady's request to erect a shrine on the site of the apparitions. The parish priest replied that it was the work of the Bishop who was already aware of the request and would be in charge of carrying out the heavenly wish of the Vision.
On the last day, March 4, following her custom, Bernadette, before going to the grotto, attended Holy Mass. At the end of the apparition, she felt a great sadness, the sadness of separation. Would she see Our Lady again?
Our Lady, always generous, did not want the day to end without a manifestation of her goodness: a great miracle, a maternal miracle, crowning the fortnight of apparitions. miracle: a two-year-old boy was already in agony, his name was Justin. Since his birth, he had a fever that was gradually destroying his life. His parents, that day, thought he was dead. In desperation, his mother picked him up and took him to the fountain. The child gave no sign of life. The mother put him in the very cold water for 15 minutes. When she arrived home, she noticed that she could hear the child's breathing normally. The next day, Justino woke up with a fresh and lively complexion, his eyes full of life, asking for food and his legs strengthened. This fact shocked the whole region and soon all of France and Europe; three doctors of great fame certified the miracle, calling it a miracle of the first order.
Then the governor of Tarbes, the city to which Lourdes belonged, gathered all the mayors of the area to give precise instructions to immediately prohibit the attendance of any citizen to the grotto. Everything was in vain, every day more and more pilgrims came from everywhere.
In spite of the persecutions, mockery and insults, Bernadette continued to visit the Grotto. She went to pray the Rosary with the pilgrims. But the sweet vision did not appear. She was already resigned to never seeing Our Lady again.
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On March 25, the day of the Annunciation, Bernadette felt strongly moved to go to the Grotto; very happy she obeyed the call in her heart, and went immediately to the Grotto.
As it was a solemn date, the pilgrims hoped that Our Lady would appear and when Bernadette arrived she was amazed at the number of people she met. It was this 25th day, in the history of the apparitions, a day of glory. Bernadette asked the Lady again... “would you be so kind as to tell me who you are and what is your name?” (the vision shone more brightly than ever; always smiling, and her smile was the only answer).
Bernadette insisted... “will you tell me who you are, I beg you, my Lady”.
Then the Lady looked away from Bernadette, separated Her hands, made the rosary She had in Her fingers slide on Her arm, raised at the same time Her hands and Her radiant head, while Her hands were joined in front of Her chest, Her head was fixed and, more resplendent than the light of the sun, She looked up to heaven and said: “I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION”, and thus She disappeared, leaving in Bernadette this image and this name.
Bernadette heard those words for the first time. While she was going to the parish house to tell the parish priest (since he had given her the task of asking the vision what her name was), she went all the way repeating “Immaculate Conception”, those words so mysterious and difficult for an illiterate child.
When the parish priest heard Bernadette's story, he was astonished. How could a girl without any religious instruction know the dogma that only four years earlier the Church had promulgated? In 1854, Pope Pius IX had defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
The priest verified that Bernadette had not been deceived, it was She, the Blessed Virgin, the sovereign Mother of God who appeared to her in the Grotto.
April 5: On Easter Monday, she returned to the grotto, surrounded by a real crowd of people who prayed with her. Bernadette, kneeling as was her usual custom, held in her left hand the lighted candle that accompanied her on all occasions and rested it on the ground. Absorbed in the contemplation of the Queen of Heaven, and knowing now with certainty that it was the Blessed Virgin, she raised her hands and let them fall a little, without realizing that she had them on the end of the lighted candle; then the flame began to pass between her fingers and to rise above them, oscillating from one side to the other, according to the slight breath of the wind.
Those who stood there shouted, “It's burning.” But she remained motionless. A doctor who was near Bernadette took out his watch and verified that for more than a quarter of an hour her hand was in the middle of the flame, without making any movement. Everyone shouted “miracle! The doctor verified that Bernadette's hand was unharmed.
After the apparition ended: one of the spectators approached Bernadette's hand with the flame of the same lighted candle, and she exclaimed: “Oh, what do you want, to burn me?
Last apparition:
It was on July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Bernadette feels again moved to go to the grotto, which is fenced, guarded and forbidden. She is accompanied by an aunt and some neighbors. They go down through the meadows next to the grotto. They knelt as close as possible to the grotto but without being able to reach it. Bernadette received the last visit of the Virgin and would say: “She had never appeared so glorious”.
Bernadette had fulfilled her mission, with great love and courage in the face of all the sufferings she had to endure and all the obstacles the Enemy put in her way. Her confessor repeatedly said, “The best proof of the apparitions is Bernadette herself, her life.”
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THOUSANDS OF HEALINGS
There are at least 66 case histories scientifically documenting miracles. Thousands more have undoubtedly occurred and continue to occur but are not part of the shrine's extremely rigorous documentation. There are also countless healings of the soul which are the most important.