Bernadette Soubirous
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Saint Bernadette 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". These claims have been "confirmed" by the Catholic Church in a canonical investigation though Non-Christian and Christian of other denominations dispute this. The phenomenon made the town a major site for pilgrimages which attracts millions of Catholics each year. In 1933 she was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
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Bernadette's early life
Bernadette was the daughter of François Soubirous, a farmer, and his wife Louise, a much younger women. She was the eldest of six children. Hard times had fallen on rural France and the family lived in extreme poverty, 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 dialect, which is closer to Basque, it is likely Bernadette was not the only student with learning problems.
Visions and Miracles
On 11 February 1858, aged 14, while she was out gathering firewood with her sister and another friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes, Bernadette saw the first of 18 visions of a lady who was later considered by the Church to be the Blessed Virgin Mary. The other girls saw nothing. The apparition did not identify herself until the 17th vision, and until then Bernadette called her simply 'Aquero' ('it' in the local dialect). See also:-Possible natural explanations for the apparitions and the Candle
On the ninth vision, as Bernadette later reported to her family and to church and civil investigators, the lady told Bernadette to drink from the spring that flowed under the rock. 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, and a small puddle appeared. The spring began to flow a second or so later. Soon the spring was a recorded twelve feet high. The water of the spring is claimed to have miraculous healing properties; in the 145 years since then, about 70 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Bureau as "inexplicable", but only after what the Church claims are "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations" failed to find any other explanations.
The other content of Bernadette's visions was simple, and focused on the need for prayer and penance. However, at the 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.
Her sixteenth, which went for over an hour, was on March 25 1858. During this vision, the second of two "miracles of the candle" occurred. Bernadette was holding a lighted candle; during the vision it burned down, and the flame was in direct contact with her skin for over 15 minutes but she showed no sign of experiencing any pain. This was witnessed by many people present, including a doctor 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 the vision ended, the doctor examined her hand but found no evidence of any burning, and she was completely unaware of what had been happening. The doctor then briefly applied a lighted candle to her hand and she reacted immediately.
Further Visions and Miracles
According to Bernadette's account, during that same visitation she'd again asked the lady her name but she just smiled back. She repeated the question a further three times, and finally heard the lady say, in the local dialect, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Four years earlier, Pope Pius IX had promulgated the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. This was that, alone of all human beings who have ever lived, Mary the mother of Jesus 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 uneducated peasant girl who could barely even read, and her parents, teachers and priests all later testified that she had never previously heard the words 'immaculate conception' from them. One has to take their word for that. She could easily have heard it from visiting priests or other educated local people or visitors. If Bernadette had heard of the idea at all (she did own a Miraculous Medal) she probably thought, as most people did and still do, that "conceived without sin" in the Medal's prayer referred to the Virgin Birth. She may have assumed that, "I am the Immaculate Conception" referred to the virgin birth.
Bernadette was a sickly child; she had 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. But 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 set the example by which all who claim visions and mystical experiences are now judged by Church authorities.
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 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 illness at the age of thirty-five on April 16 1879.
Bernadette's body exhumed
Her body was first exhumed on September 2 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors, and a sister of the community. Although the crucifix in her hand and the rosary had both oxidized, her body was found to be "incorrupt" — preserved from decomposition. This was one of the incidents cited for support of her canonization. In other cultures Bernadette Soubirous could have been seen as a she-vampire rather than a saint. See, Incorruptibility in other cultures. Her body was washed and reclothed before burial in a new double casket. The corpse was exhumed a second time on April 3 1919. The body was found to be still preserved. There was slight discoloration of the face which has been explained as being due to the washing process of the first exhumation.
In 1925, relics were taken from her body and her face was sprayed with a film of wax. It is claimed no more than that was done though it cannot be proved that nothing else was done. 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.
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.
The case of Bernadette's preserved body is discussed further under:- Natural explanations for the preservation of a Dead Body.
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 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.
See also
References
- The Miracle Joint at Lourdes From "Essays " by Woolsey Teller, Copyright 1945 by The Truth Seeker Company, Inc. Harshly worded critique of the Lourdes story.
- Lourdes: In Bernadette's Footsteps, by Father Joseph Bordes, Copyright 2005 by MSM Company - Tells Bernadette's Story and about the tourism at Lourdes.
- The Song of Bernadette Franz Werfel's classic abridged by John Martin
External links
- The Miracle Joint at Lourdes From "Essays " by Woolsey Teller, Copyright 1945 by The Truth Seeker Company, Inc. Harshly worded critique of the Lourdes story.
- Lourdes and Bernadette Detailed chronology of the apparitions, with many pictures.
- Bernadette as she is today
- The Body of St. Bernadette--Includes reports of her exhumation and photographs of her body and tomb.
- The Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction
- Life and Background to Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes
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