Bernadette Soubirous

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Bernadette of Lourdes

Born	January 7, 1844, Lourdes
Died	April 16, 1879, Nevers
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	1933
Major shrine	Lourdes
Feast	February 18(in France), April 16 (everywhere else)
Patronage	Sick people, poverty, Lourdes,shepherds
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Bernadette Soubirous

"I am the Immaculate Conception"

Saint Bernadette, née Marie-Bernarde Soubirous (January 7, 1844 - April 16, 1879), was a shepherd girl from the town of Lourdes in southern France. From February to July 1858, she reported eighteen apparitions of "a Lady." Despite initial skepticism from the Roman Catholic Church, these claims were eventually declared to be worthy of belief after a canonical investigation. After her death, Bernadette's body remained "incorrupt" and it is this phenomenon which has made the town a major site for pilgrimages, attracting millions of Catholics each year. In 1933 she was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

1 Bernadette's life
2 Bernadette's vision
3 Bernadette's later years
4 Bernadette's body exhumed
5 Canonization as a Catholic saint
6 Fictional treatment
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Bernadette's life

Bernadette (the soubriquet by which she was universally known) was the daughter of François Soubirous (1807-1871), a miller, and his wife Louise (nee Castérot) (1825-1866), a laundress. She was the eldest of six children. Hard times had fallen on rural France and the family lived in extreme poverty. Neighbors reported that the family lived in unusual harmony, apparently relying on their love and support for one another and their religious devotion. All the family members sought what employment they could. Bernadette did farm work, notably sheep herding, for a family friend in nearby Bartrès, and also waited tables in her Aunt Bernarde's tavern. She returned to Lourdes in January 1858 to attend the free school run by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction so she could finish learning the Catechism so as to receive her first Holy Communion. Her difficulties in school were attributed at the time to simple-mindedness, and in later hagiographies used to illustrate her innocence; but since all classes were taught in classic French rather than the local Gascon, it is likely Bernadette was not the only student with learning problems. PEOPLE CALLED HER FAT. BECAUSE SHE IS.

[edit] Bernadette's vision

On 11 February 1858, then aged 14, while she was out gathering firewood with her sister and a friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes, Bernadette had an experience that forever changed her life and the town of Lourdes where she lived. It was on this day that Bernadette claimed to see the first of 18 visions of what she termed "a small young lady" standing in a niche in the rock. The other girls stated that they saw nothing. She claimed that the "beautiful lady" asked her to return to the grotto every day for fifteen days. The apparition supposedly did not identify herself until the 17th vision, she never claimed it to be anything other than this, but the townspeople all assumed it to be the Virgin Mary and until then Bernadette called her simply 'Aquero' (or rather "the lady") Bernadette also claimed that this lady wore a white veil, a blue girdle and had a golden rose on each foot as well as "holding" a string of Rosary beads. Bernadette's story caused a sensation with the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not Bernadette was telling the truth. She soon had a large number of people following her on her daily journey, some out of curiosity and others who firmly believed that they were witnessing a miracle.

The other contents of Bernadette's claimed visions were simple, and focused on the need for prayer and penance. However, at the supposed thirteenth apparition on March 2nd, Bernadette told her family that the lady had said "Please go to the priests and tell them that a chapel is to be built here. Let processions come hither." Accompanied by two of her aunts, Bernadette duly went to parish priest Father Dominique Peyramale with the request. A brilliant but often roughspoken man with little belief in claims of visions and miracles, Peyramale told Bernadette that the lady must identify herself. Bernadette said that on her next visitation she repeated the Father's words to the lady, but that the lady bowed a little, smiled and said nothing. Then Father Peyramale told Bernadette to prove that the "lady" actually was "real" to ask her to perform a miracle, that was to make the rose bush beneath the niche of which she appeared to Bernadette bud and flower in the middle of February.

As Bernadette later reported to her family and to church and civil investigators, at the ninth visitation the lady supposedly told Bernadette to drink from the spring that flowed under the rock, and eat the plants that grew freely there,and although there was no known spring there, and the ground was hard and dry, Bernadette assumed the "lady" meant that the spring was underground. She did as she was told and dug into the dirt, but when nothing happened this caused much scepticism among the onlookers. However, the water began to flow a day or so later. Some devout people followed Bernadette's example by drinking and washing in the water, which was soon reported to have healing properties.

In the 145 years since Bernadette dug up the spring, 67 cures have been "verified" by the Lourdes Medical Bureau as "inexplicable" (not "miraculous"), but only after what the Church claims are "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations" fail to find any other explanation. The Lourdes Commission which examined Bernadette after the visions also ran an intensive analysis on the water, and found that while it has a high mineral content, it contains nothing out of the ordinary that would account for the claimed cures. Bernadette herself said that it was faith and prayer that cured the sick.

Her sixteenth vision, which she claimed went for over an hour, was supposedly on March 25 1858. During this supposed vision, the second of two "miracles of the candle" was said to have occurred. Bernadette was holding a lighted candle; during the vision it burned down, and the flame was said to be in direct contact with her skin for over 15 minutes but she supposedly showed no sign of experiencing any pain or injury. This was claimed to be witnessed by many people present, including the town physician, Dr. Pierre Romaine Dozous, who timed and later documented it. According to his report, there was no sign that her skin was in any way affected, so he monitored Bernadette closely but did not intervene. After her "vision" ended, the doctor said that he examined her hand but found no evidence of any burning, and that she was completely unaware of what had been happening. The doctor then said that he briefly applied a lighted candle to her hand, and she reacted immediately. It is unclear if observers other than Dozous were sufficiently close to witness if the candle was continuously in contact with Bernadette’s skin.

According to Bernadette's account, during that same visitation she again asked the lady her name but the lady just smiled back. She repeated the question a further three times, and finally heard the lady say, in the local Occitan language, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Four years earlier, Pope Pius IX had promulgated (promulgate) the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; that, alone of all human beings who have ever lived, the Virgin Mary was born without the stain of original sin. However this was not well known to Catholics at large at that time, being generally confined to discussion amongst the clergy. It certainly was not an expression known to a simple undereducated peasant girl who could barely read. Her parents, teachers and priests all later testified that she had never previously heard the words 'immaculate conception' from them.

Bernadette was a sickly child; she had cholera in infancy and suffered most of her life from asthma, and some of the people who interviewed her following her revelation of the visions thought her simple-minded. However, despite being rigorously interviewed by officials of both the Catholic Church and the French government, she stuck consistently to her story. Her behavior during this period is said to set the example by which all who claim visions and mystical experiences are now judged by Church authorities.

[edit] Bernadette's later years

Disliking the attention she was attracting, Bernadette went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction, where she finally learned to read and write. She then joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers convent moving into their motherhouse at Nevers at the age of 22. She spent the rest of her brief life there, working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. During a severe asthma attack, she asked for water from the Lourdes spring, and her symptoms subsided, never to return. However, she did not seek healing in this way when she later contracted tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee. She had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes, but was not present for the consecration of the basilica there in 1876. She eventually died of her long term illness at the age of thirty-five on April 16, 1879.

[edit] Bernadette's body exhumed

Bishop Gauthey of Nevers and the church exhumed the body of Bernadette Soubirous on September 2, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors, and a sister of the community. They found that although the crucifix in her hand and the rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared "incorrupt" — preserved from decomposition. This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before burial in a new double casket.

The church exhumed the corpse a second time on April 3, 1919. The body still appeared preserved, however, her face was slightly discolored possibly due to the washing process of the first exhumation.

In 1925, the church exhumed the body for a third time. They took relics, which were sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. This was common practice for relics in France, as it was feared that although the body was mummified, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public. Imprints of the hands were also taken for the presentation of the body. The remains were then placed in a gold and glass reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the motherhouse in Nevers. The site is visited by many pilgrims and the body of Saint Bernadette to this day remains incorrupt despite being nearly one hundred and thirty years old.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Canonization as a Catholic saint

She received Beatification in 1925 and Canonization in 1933 under Pope Pius XI, not so much for the content of her visions, but rather for her simplicity and holiness of life. She is the patron saint of sick persons and of Lourdes.

[edit] Fictional treatment

Her life was given a fictionalised treatment in Franz Werfel's novel The Song of Bernadette, which was later adapted into a 1943 film of the same name starring Jennifer Jones as Bernadette (and the uncredited Linda Darnell as the Immaculate Conception). Jones won her only Best Actress Oscar for this portrayal. A more recent version of Bernadette's life is presented in the 1988 film by Jean Dellanoy, and starring Sydney Penny in the lead role.

She is also the subject of Jennifer Warnes' "Song of Bernadette" – co-written with Leonard Cohen (lyrics) and Bill Elliott (music) – off her 1987 album Famous Blue Raincoat.

[edit] References

The Miracle Joint at Lourdes From "Essays " by Woolsey Teller, Copyright 1945 by The Truth Seeker Company, Inc. Critique of the Lourdes story.
Lourdes: In Bernadette's Footsteps, by Father Joseph Bordes, Copyright 2005 by MSM Company - Tells Bernadette's story, and describes the tourism at Lourdes.
The Song of Bernadette Franz Werfel's classic abridged by John Martin