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Description
St. Bernadette Soubirous
© Cecilia Lawrence
August 17th 2017
4.5 x 6 inches
Ink, watercolor, gold leaf

“Oh! Oh! Yes indeed! And even more than that! [Our Lady] is so lovely that, when you have seen her once, you would willingly die to see her again!”
~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

“I was nothing, and of this nothing God made something great. In Holy Communion I am heart to heart with Jesus. How sublime is my destiny.”
~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

“I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them. I shall do everything for Heaven, my true home. There I shall find my Mother in all the splendor of her glory. I shall delight with her in the joy of Jesus himself in perfect safety.”
~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

This icon of St. Bernadette Soubirous was part of a larger group of commissioned icons that I finished back in the summer of 2017. I have depicted St. Bernadette as a young peasant girl, (based on this photograph of her) holding a rosary and an image of Our Lady of Lourdes, who appeared to her at the Grotto of Massabielle. From this Grotto came a spring of water from which many people have subsequently experienced miraculous cures. Around the corners of the image of Our Lady are the words “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou” which means “I am the Immaculate Conception” which was the name Our Lady gave to St. Bernadette when asked who she was.

:+: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE SAINT :+:

Saint Bernadette Soubirous (January 7th 1844 – April 16th 1879 A.D.) known also as Bernadette of Lourdes, and born Marie Bernarde Soubirous was the daughter of a miller named François Soubirous and his wife Louise née Casteròt who worked as a laundress. The family was poor, and Bernadette was the eldest of nine children. Her siblings were Jean, Toinette, Jean-Marie, Jean-Marie, Justin, Pierre, Jean, and Louise. Only Bernadette, Toinette, Jean-Marie, and Pierre survived childhood however. Bernadette was named for her aunt (and godmother) Bernarde Casterot. The family was so poor that they lived in a one-room building that had formerly been used as a jail. Bernadette was a sickly child, small, weak, and frail and suffered from asthma. Because she was ill so frequently, she was unable to attend school and so fell behind in her studies. She learned her catechism and was taught in a day school by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers.

On Thursday, February 11th 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette, along with her younger sister Toinette and her friend Jeanne Abadie, left town to collect firewood for Bernadette’s mother, since they were poor and the winter was very cold and bitter. The other girls had crossed the river Gave when Bernadette, reluctant to catch a cold, hesitated to cross. Seeing how there was no other way over, she sat down to take off her shoes and stockings to wade through the water after her friends. She later recounted:
“I went on taking my stockings off, and was putting one foot into the water, when I heard the same sound in front of me. I looked up and saw a cluster of branches and brambles underneath the topmost opening in the grotto tossing and swaying to and fro, though nothing else stirred all around.

Behind these branches and within the opening, I saw immediately afterwards a Girl in white, no bigger than myself, who greeted me with a slight bow of the head; at the same time, she stretched out her arms slightly away from her body, opening her hands, as in pictures of Our Lady; over her right arm hung a rosary.

I was afraid. I stepped back. I wanted to call the two little girls, but I didn't have the courage to do so. I rubbed my eyes again and again: I thought I must be mistaken.

Raising my eyes again, I saw the Girl smiling at me most graciously and seeming to invite me to come nearer. But I was still afraid. It was not however a fear such as I have had at other times, for I would have stayed there for ever looking at her: whereas, when you are afraid, you run away quickly.

Then I thought of saying my prayers. I put my hand in my pocket. I took out the rosary I usually carry on me. I knelt down and I tried to make the sign of the Cross, but I could not lift my hand to my forehead: it fell back.

The Girl meanwhile stepped to one side and turned towards me. This time, she was holding the large beads in her hand. She crossed herself as though to pray. My hand was trembling. I tried again to make the sign of the Cross, and this time I could. After that I was not afraid.

I said my Rosary. The young girl slipped the beads of hers through her fingers, but she was not moving her lips.

While I was praying my Rosary, I was watching as hard as I could. She was wearing a white dress reaching down to her feet, of which only the toes appeared. The dress was gathered very high at the neck by a hem from which hung a white cord. A white veil covered her head and came down over her shoulders and arms almost to the bottom of her dress. On each foot I saw a yellow rose. The sash of the dress was blue, and hung down below her knees. The chain of the Rosary was yellow; the beads white, big and widely spaced. The Girl was alive, very young and surrounded with light. When I had finished my Rosary, she bowed to me smilingly. She retired within the niche and disappeared all of a sudden.”
Bernadette resumed taking off her stockings, and asked her friends if they had seen anything. They said no, so Bernadette said nothing, as she supposed she might have been seeing things. But then the two girls kept pestering her and asking her what she had seen, so she told them and made them promise not to tell anyone. When they arrived home, they said that Bernadette had seen a Lady dressed in white.

Her mother and father forbade her to go back to the Grotto, but Bernadette felt impelled to go back. After Mass on Sunday, Bernadette asked her mother if she could go, and her mother relented. Her father said he supposed there was no harm in a Lady carrying a Rosary. Bernadette and some other girls brought holy water with them, and as Bernadette knelt down and began praying the Rosary, the Lady appeared again. Bernadette sprinkled her with holy water and told the Girl that if she was from God she could stay but if she wasn’t she must go away. The Lady only smiled sweetly and bowed. After they finished their Rosary, she disappeared.

On February 18th 1858, the following Thursday, Bernadette went back to the Grotto with some adults who brought paper and ink with them. When the Lady appeared, Bernadette asked her if she had anything she wanted to say, and if so, would she have the goodness to put it down on paper? The Lady smiled and said that it wasn’t necessary to write it down, but instead asked Bernadette to come back to the Grotto for a fortnight. Bernadette said she would, and then the Lady said, “I do not promise to make you happy in this life but in the next.”

Beginning the next day, Friday, February 19th, Bernadette came to the Grotto every day for two weeks. The Lady appeared everyday except for one Monday and one Friday. She made the request that Bernadette was to tell the priests to build a chapel there at the Grotto. The Lady confided certain secrets to her and told her to pray for sinners and to wash in the spring that gushed up from the Grotto. About the Lady, Bernadette said: “When I see her I feel as if I'm no longer of this world. And when the vision disappears I'm amazed to find myself still here.” People began to flock to the Grotto, first out of curiosity and with scornful skepticism, but later with deep respect and awe at the serenity and deep peace that emanated from Bernadette when she came to the Grotto.

On Thursday, February 25th 1858, the Lady told Bernadette to drink at the fountain and wash herself. Bernadette at first thought she meant the Gave, but then the Lady indicated a place under the rock, so Bernadette obediently began digging and drinking the water. She was then told to eat some of the grass growing there too.Seeing Bernadette covered in mud and eating grass like an animal, people began to scoff at her and dismissed her as a madwoman. Her aunt slapped her and angrily hauled her home as the onlookers jeered.

Disheartened, Bernadette returned to the Grotto the next day and discovered the pure crystal water was flowing the spring she had dug up. Soon, miraculous cures began taking place, which brought large crowds back to the Grotto over the course of the next few days. On Monday, March 1st, a woman from a neighboring village named Catherine Latapie bathed her paralyzed arm in the spring and was miraculously cured. The next day, the Lady (whom Bernadette merely referred to as “Aquero” as she did not know her name) said: “Go and tell the priest to build a chapel here and to have people come in procession.” Bernadette knew the Lady meant Fr. Peyramale, and went to him to deliver her message. The priest didn’t believe her and sent her away angrily. That same day, she came again to deliver her message, and Fr. Peyramale questioned her in front of the other priests. There was disagreement among the priests as to what to do, so finally Fr. Peyramale simply said: “If the lady wants her chapel, let her tell you her name, and ask her to make the rosebush at the grotto flower.” The next day, Bernadette did as the priest requested and asked the lady her name, but she only smiled. That was the end of the fortnight visits.

For the next few weeks, Bernadette went to school and prepared for her First Communion. Finally, on Thursday, March 25th 1858, she again felt impelled to return to the Grotto. She didn’t know if this was to be the last time she ever saw the Lady again, so when the Lady appeared, Bernadette was determined to obtain the Lady’s name for Fr. Peyramale. Bernadette wrote:“I went every day for a fortnight, and each day I asked her who she was–and this petition always made her smile. After the fortnight I asked her three times consecutively. She always smiled. At last I tried for the fourth time. She stopped smiling. With her arms down, she raised her eyes to heaven and then, folding her hands over her breast she said, 'I am the Immaculate Conception.' Then I went back to M. le Curé [Fr. Peyramale] to tell him that she had said she was the Immaculate Conception, and he asked was I absolutely certain. I said yes, and so as not to forget the words, I had repeated them all the way home.” The priest was shocked, and said, “You are mistaken. Do you know what that means?” Bernadette didn’t, and only later found out that it was a title of the Virgin Mary’s. The doctrine had only been dogmatically defined by Pope Pius IX four years earlier. Fr. Peyramale wrote to the bishop, saying, “She could never have invented this…”

For the last time, on Friday, July 16th 1858, Bernadette was drawn to the Grotto. It had been barricaded by the authorities, but Bernadette still saw the Lady and said good-bye to her. Twelve days the end of the apparitions, Bishop Laurence of Tarbes appointed a commission to look into the events at Lourdes. For three and a half years witnesses were officially examined and interrogated, miraculous cures were recorded in the most painstaking detail, and eminent doctors were called upon to examine the patients who had been cured. Finally, on January 18th 1862, Bishop Laurence wrote: “We judge that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, really appeared to Bernadette on the 11th of February 1858…” A chapel was constructed for the pilgrims who flocked to Lourdes and many miraculous cures were reported.

As for Bernadette, Fr. Peyramale protected her from all the unwanted attention by sending her to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers where she learned to write and speak French as well as learned to sew. In April of 1862, she collapsed, and she was feared to be dying. The priest gave her the Anointing of the Sick and when the doctor prescribed her some medicine she instead asked for some water from the Grotto to drink. She did so and was cured.

In 1865, Bernadette’s brother died at the age of nine. Soon afterwards, the bishop visited Bernadette and asked her if she wanted to get married. Bernadette simply replied, “Oh, that is not for me.” He asked her is she wished to join a religious order, but the young girl replied, “I don't know anything, and I'm no good at anything.” The bishop said, “You are good at scraping carrots. Think it over, and if your heart says yes, I will see to the rest.” Bernadette prayed about it and consulted her parents and friends, and finally decided to join Sisters of Charity of Nevers. On July 3rd 1866, she went to the Grotto for the last time and said goodbye. On July 29th 1866 she joined the Sisters of Nevers as a postulant. She was very homesick, and soon became ill with a cough. The bishop was called to anoint her, but Bernadette recovered and became a novice. On December 8th, Bernadette’s mother died, and this sorrow convinced her that this earthly life was only Heaven’s waiting room.

On October 30th, 1867, at the age of twenty-three, Bernadette made her religious profession of vows. She spent her life in prayer and helping out in the sacristy and in the infirmary. In 1871, her father died, and in 1877, her good friend Fr. Peyramale died. Bernadette’s health quickly declined after she contracted tuberculosis. She suffered patiently and humbly, following Our Lady’s command to offer up her pain as penance for sin. Bernadette died on April 16th 1879 at the age of thirty-five. On June 14th 1925, Pope Pius XI declared her blessed, and he later canonized her on December 8th 1933. Today, Bernadette’s relics reside in the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, in the church of Saint Gildard.

“I had gone down one day with two other girls to the bank of the river Gave when suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the field by the side of the river but the trees seemed quite still and the noise was evidently not from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top of each of her feet was a pale yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads.
At this I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was seeing things, and I put my hands into the fold of my dress where my rosary was. I wanted to make the sign of the cross but for the life of me I couldn’t manage it and my hand just fell down. Then the lady made the sign of the cross herself and at the second attempt I managed to do the same, though my hands were trembling. Then I began to say the rosary while the lady let her beads slip through her fingers, without moving her lips. When I stopped saying the Hail Mary, she immediately vanished.

I asked my two companions if they had noticed anything, but they said no. Of course they wanted to know what I was doing and I told them that I had seen a lady wearing a nice white dress, though I didn’t know who she was. I told them not to say anything about it, and they said I was silly to have anything to do with it. I said they were wrong and I came back next Sunday, feeling myself drawn to the place....

The third time I went the lady spoke to me and asked me to come every day for fifteen days. I said I would and then she said that she wanted me to tell the priests to build a chapel there. She also told me to drink from the stream. I went to the Gave, the only stream I could see. Then she made me realize she was not speaking of the Gave and she indicated a little trickle of water close by. When I got to it I could only find a few drops, mostly mud. I cupped my hands to catch some liquid without success and then I started to scrape the ground. I managed to find a few drops of water but only at the fourth attempt was there a sufficient amount for any kind of drink. The lady then vanished and I went back home.

I went back each day for two weeks and each time, except one Monday and one Friday, the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in it and to see that the priests build a chapel there. I must also pray, she said, for the conversion of sinners. I asked her many times what she meant by that, but she only smiled. Finally with outstretched arms and eyes looking up to heaven she told me she was the Immaculate Conception.

During the two weeks she told me three secrets but I was not to speak about them to anyone and so far I have not.”
~ from a letter of Saint Bernadette Soubirous

The Feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous is celebrated on April 16th.

St. Bernadette Soubirous is the patron saint of Lourdes, those suffering from illness, shepherdesses, the poor, and those ridiculed for their faith.

O God,
who declare that you abide in hearts that are pure,
grant that through the intercession of the virgin blessed Bernadette,
we may be so fashioned by your grace,
that we become a dwelling pleasing to you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Description
St. Bernadette Soubirous
© Cecilia Lawrence
August 17th 2017
4.5 x 6 inches
Ink, watercolor, gold leaf

“Oh! Oh! Yes indeed! And even more than that! [Our Lady] is so lovely that, when you have seen her once, you would willingly die to see her again!”
~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

“I was nothing, and of this nothing God made something great. In Holy Communion I am heart to heart with Jesus. How sublime is my destiny.”
~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

“I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them. I shall do everything for Heaven, my true home. There I shall find my Mother in all the splendor of her glory. I shall delight with her in the joy of Jesus himself in perfect safety.”
~ St. Bernadette Soubirous

This icon of St. Bernadette Soubirous was part of a larger group of commissioned icons that I finished back in the summer of 2017. I have depicted St. Bernadette as a young peasant girl, (based on this photograph of her) holding a rosary and an image of Our Lady of Lourdes, who appeared to her at the Grotto of Massabielle. From this Grotto came a spring of water from which many people have subsequently experienced miraculous cures. Around the corners of the image of Our Lady are the words “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou” which means “I am the Immaculate Conception” which was the name Our Lady gave to St. Bernadette when asked who she was.

:+: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE SAINT :+:

Saint Bernadette Soubirous (January 7th 1844 – April 16th 1879 A.D.) known also as Bernadette of Lourdes, and born Marie Bernarde Soubirous was the daughter of a miller named François Soubirous and his wife Louise née Casteròt who worked as a laundress. The family was poor, and Bernadette was the eldest of nine children. Her siblings were Jean, Toinette, Jean-Marie, Jean-Marie, Justin, Pierre, Jean, and Louise. Only Bernadette, Toinette, Jean-Marie, and Pierre survived childhood however. Bernadette was named for her aunt (and godmother) Bernarde Casterot. The family was so poor that they lived in a one-room building that had formerly been used as a jail. Bernadette was a sickly child, small, weak, and frail and suffered from asthma. Because she was ill so frequently, she was unable to attend school and so fell behind in her studies. She learned her catechism and was taught in a day school by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers.

On Thursday, February 11th 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette, along with her younger sister Toinette and her friend Jeanne Abadie, left town to collect firewood for Bernadette’s mother, since they were poor and the winter was very cold and bitter. The other girls had crossed the river Gave when Bernadette, reluctant to catch a cold, hesitated to cross. Seeing how there was no other way over, she sat down to take off her shoes and stockings to wade through the water after her friends. She later recounted:
“I went on taking my stockings off, and was putting one foot into the water, when I heard the same sound in front of me. I looked up and saw a cluster of branches and brambles underneath the topmost opening in the grotto tossing and swaying to and fro, though nothing else stirred all around.

Behind these branches and within the opening, I saw immediately afterwards a Girl in white, no bigger than myself, who greeted me with a slight bow of the head; at the same time, she stretched out her arms slightly away from her body, opening her hands, as in pictures of Our Lady; over her right arm hung a rosary.

I was afraid. I stepped back. I wanted to call the two little girls, but I didn't have the courage to do so. I rubbed my eyes again and again: I thought I must be mistaken.

Raising my eyes again, I saw the Girl smiling at me most graciously and seeming to invite me to come nearer. But I was still afraid. It was not however a fear such as I have had at other times, for I would have stayed there for ever looking at her: whereas, when you are afraid, you run away quickly.

Then I thought of saying my prayers. I put my hand in my pocket. I took out the rosary I usually carry on me. I knelt down and I tried to make the sign of the Cross, but I could not lift my hand to my forehead: it fell back.

The Girl meanwhile stepped to one side and turned towards me. This time, she was holding the large beads in her hand. She crossed herself as though to pray. My hand was trembling. I tried again to make the sign of the Cross, and this time I could. After that I was not afraid.

I said my Rosary. The young girl slipped the beads of hers through her fingers, but she was not moving her lips.

While I was praying my Rosary, I was watching as hard as I could. She was wearing a white dress reaching down to her feet, of which only the toes appeared. The dress was gathered very high at the neck by a hem from which hung a white cord. A white veil covered her head and came down over her shoulders and arms almost to the bottom of her dress. On each foot I saw a yellow rose. The sash of the dress was blue, and hung down below her knees. The chain of the Rosary was yellow; the beads white, big and widely spaced. The Girl was alive, very young and surrounded with light. When I had finished my Rosary, she bowed to me smilingly. She retired within the niche and disappeared all of a sudden.”
Bernadette resumed taking off her stockings, and asked her friends if they had seen anything. They said no, so Bernadette said nothing, as she supposed she might have been seeing things. But then the two girls kept pestering her and asking her what she had seen, so she told them and made them promise not to tell anyone. When they arrived home, they said that Bernadette had seen a Lady dressed in white.

Her mother and father forbade her to go back to the Grotto, but Bernadette felt impelled to go back. After Mass on Sunday, Bernadette asked her mother if she could go, and her mother relented. Her father said he supposed there was no harm in a Lady carrying a Rosary. Bernadette and some other girls brought holy water with them, and as Bernadette knelt down and began praying the Rosary, the Lady appeared again. Bernadette sprinkled her with holy water and told the Girl that if she was from God she could stay but if she wasn’t she must go away. The Lady only smiled sweetly and bowed. After they finished their Rosary, she disappeared.

On February 18th 1858, the following Thursday, Bernadette went back to the Grotto with some adults who brought paper and ink with them. When the Lady appeared, Bernadette asked her if she had anything she wanted to say, and if so, would she have the goodness to put it down on paper? The Lady smiled and said that it wasn’t necessary to write it down, but instead asked Bernadette to come back to the Grotto for a fortnight. Bernadette said she would, and then the Lady said, “I do not promise to make you happy in this life but in the next.”

Beginning the next day, Friday, February 19th, Bernadette came to the Grotto every day for two weeks. The Lady appeared everyday except for one Monday and one Friday. She made the request that Bernadette was to tell the priests to build a chapel there at the Grotto. The Lady confided certain secrets to her and told her to pray for sinners and to wash in the spring that gushed up from the Grotto. About the Lady, Bernadette said: “When I see her I feel as if I'm no longer of this world. And when the vision disappears I'm amazed to find myself still here.” People began to flock to the Grotto, first out of curiosity and with scornful skepticism, but later with deep respect and awe at the serenity and deep peace that emanated from Bernadette when she came to the Grotto.

On Thursday, February 25th 1858, the Lady told Bernadette to drink at the fountain and wash herself. Bernadette at first thought she meant the Gave, but then the Lady indicated a place under the rock, so Bernadette obediently began digging and drinking the water. She was then told to eat some of the grass growing there too.Seeing Bernadette covered in mud and eating grass like an animal, people began to scoff at her and dismissed her as a madwoman. Her aunt slapped her and angrily hauled her home as the onlookers jeered.

Disheartened, Bernadette returned to the Grotto the next day and discovered the pure crystal water was flowing the spring she had dug up. Soon, miraculous cures began taking place, which brought large crowds back to the Grotto over the course of the next few days. On Monday, March 1st, a woman from a neighboring village named Catherine Latapie bathed her paralyzed arm in the spring and was miraculously cured. The next day, the Lady (whom Bernadette merely referred to as “Aquero” as she did not know her name) said: “Go and tell the priest to build a chapel here and to have people come in procession.” Bernadette knew the Lady meant Fr. Peyramale, and went to him to deliver her message. The priest didn’t believe her and sent her away angrily. That same day, she came again to deliver her message, and Fr. Peyramale questioned her in front of the other priests. There was disagreement among the priests as to what to do, so finally Fr. Peyramale simply said: “If the lady wants her chapel, let her tell you her name, and ask her to make the rosebush at the grotto flower.” The next day, Bernadette did as the priest requested and asked the lady her name, but she only smiled. That was the end of the fortnight visits.

For the next few weeks, Bernadette went to school and prepared for her First Communion. Finally, on Thursday, March 25th 1858, she again felt impelled to return to the Grotto. She didn’t know if this was to be the last time she ever saw the Lady again, so when the Lady appeared, Bernadette was determined to obtain the Lady’s name for Fr. Peyramale. Bernadette wrote:“I went every day for a fortnight, and each day I asked her who she was–and this petition always made her smile. After the fortnight I asked her three times consecutively. She always smiled. At last I tried for the fourth time. She stopped smiling. With her arms down, she raised her eyes to heaven and then, folding her hands over her breast she said, 'I am the Immaculate Conception.' Then I went back to M. le Curé [Fr. Peyramale] to tell him that she had said she was the Immaculate Conception, and he asked was I absolutely certain. I said yes, and so as not to forget the words, I had repeated them all the way home.” The priest was shocked, and said, “You are mistaken. Do you know what that means?” Bernadette didn’t, and only later found out that it was a title of the Virgin Mary’s. The doctrine had only been dogmatically defined by Pope Pius IX four years earlier. Fr. Peyramale wrote to the bishop, saying, “She could never have invented this…”

For the last time, on Friday, July 16th 1858, Bernadette was drawn to the Grotto. It had been barricaded by the authorities, but Bernadette still saw the Lady and said good-bye to her. Twelve days the end of the apparitions, Bishop Laurence of Tarbes appointed a commission to look into the events at Lourdes. For three and a half years witnesses were officially examined and interrogated, miraculous cures were recorded in the most painstaking detail, and eminent doctors were called upon to examine the patients who had been cured. Finally, on January 18th 1862, Bishop Laurence wrote: “We judge that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, really appeared to Bernadette on the 11th of February 1858…” A chapel was constructed for the pilgrims who flocked to Lourdes and many miraculous cures were reported.

As for Bernadette, Fr. Peyramale protected her from all the unwanted attention by sending her to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers where she learned to write and speak French as well as learned to sew. In April of 1862, she collapsed, and she was feared to be dying. The priest gave her the Anointing of the Sick and when the doctor prescribed her some medicine she instead asked for some water from the Grotto to drink. She did so and was cured.

In 1865, Bernadette’s brother died at the age of nine. Soon afterwards, the bishop visited Bernadette and asked her if she wanted to get married. Bernadette simply replied, “Oh, that is not for me.” He asked her is she wished to join a religious order, but the young girl replied, “I don't know anything, and I'm no good at anything.” The bishop said, “You are good at scraping carrots. Think it over, and if your heart says yes, I will see to the rest.” Bernadette prayed about it and consulted her parents and friends, and finally decided to join Sisters of Charity of Nevers. On July 3rd 1866, she went to the Grotto for the last time and said goodbye. On July 29th 1866 she joined the Sisters of Nevers as a postulant. She was very homesick, and soon became ill with a cough. The bishop was called to anoint her, but Bernadette recovered and became a novice. On December 8th, Bernadette’s mother died, and this sorrow convinced her that this earthly life was only Heaven’s waiting room.

On October 30th, 1867, at the age of twenty-three, Bernadette made her religious profession of vows. She spent her life in prayer and helping out in the sacristy and in the infirmary. In 1871, her father died, and in 1877, her good friend Fr. Peyramale died. Bernadette’s health quickly declined after she contracted tuberculosis. She suffered patiently and humbly, following Our Lady’s command to offer up her pain as penance for sin. Bernadette died on April 16th 1879 at the age of thirty-five. On June 14th 1925, Pope Pius XI declared her blessed, and he later canonized her on December 8th 1933. Today, Bernadette’s relics reside in the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, in the church of Saint Gildard.

“I had gone down one day with two other girls to the bank of the river Gave when suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the field by the side of the river but the trees seemed quite still and the noise was evidently not from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top of each of her feet was a pale yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads.
At this I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was seeing things, and I put my hands into the fold of my dress where my rosary was. I wanted to make the sign of the cross but for the life of me I couldn’t manage it and my hand just fell down. Then the lady made the sign of the cross herself and at the second attempt I managed to do the same, though my hands were trembling. Then I began to say the rosary while the lady let her beads slip through her fingers, without moving her lips. When I stopped saying the Hail Mary, she immediately vanished.

I asked my two companions if they had noticed anything, but they said no. Of course they wanted to know what I was doing and I told them that I had seen a lady wearing a nice white dress, though I didn’t know who she was. I told them not to say anything about it, and they said I was silly to have anything to do with it. I said they were wrong and I came back next Sunday, feeling myself drawn to the place....

The third time I went the lady spoke to me and asked me to come every day for fifteen days. I said I would and then she said that she wanted me to tell the priests to build a chapel there. She also told me to drink from the stream. I went to the Gave, the only stream I could see. Then she made me realize she was not speaking of the Gave and she indicated a little trickle of water close by. When I got to it I could only find a few drops, mostly mud. I cupped my hands to catch some liquid without success and then I started to scrape the ground. I managed to find a few drops of water but only at the fourth attempt was there a sufficient amount for any kind of drink. The lady then vanished and I went back home.

I went back each day for two weeks and each time, except one Monday and one Friday, the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in it and to see that the priests build a chapel there. I must also pray, she said, for the conversion of sinners. I asked her many times what she meant by that, but she only smiled. Finally with outstretched arms and eyes looking up to heaven she told me she was the Immaculate Conception.

During the two weeks she told me three secrets but I was not to speak about them to anyone and so far I have not.”
~ from a letter of Saint Bernadette Soubirous

The Feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous is celebrated on April 16th.

St. Bernadette Soubirous is the patron saint of Lourdes, those suffering from illness, shepherdesses, the poor, and those ridiculed for their faith.

O God,
who declare that you abide in hearts that are pure,
grant that through the intercession of the virgin blessed Bernadette,
we may be so fashioned by your grace,
that we become a dwelling pleasing to you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.