Bernadette Soubirous

Saint Bernadette was eldest of the nine children born to Francois Soubirous and Louise on January 7, 1844 at Lourdes, Hautes Pyrenees, France. While her father was a miller by profession, her mother worked as a laundress. Her maternal aunt Bernarde Casterot was her godmother.

She was baptized at the local parish church, just two days after her birth. As a child, Bernadette was frail and mostly unwell. She suffered from digestive problems and in 1855, she contracted cholera. Later, she suffered from severe asthma and had to cope with it all through her life.

She attended the day school conducted by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction from Nevers.

It was on February 11, 1858 that Bernadette had her first of the eighteen visions. She was out with her friend gathering firewood near the grotto of Massabielle. While her friends crossed the stream ahead of grotto, she stayed behind to find an alternate place where her stockings could be saved from getting wet.

It was while she was taking off her shoes and stockings to cross the stream that she had a vision, which she referred to as ‘aquero’. A beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in the grotto. Dressed in blue and white, the lady made sign of cross with rosary of ivory and gold. Interestingly, none of her friends saw anything.

Three days after her first vision, on February 14, she visited the grotto along with her friends and sister, Marie. Upon reaching there, she knelt down, stating she saw aquero and went into the state of trance. Her friends, ignorant of her vision, threw holy water and stone at the niche which made the apparition disappear.

On February 18, she visited the grotto yet again. Once again she saw aquero and went into the state of trance. It was during this visit that she claimed that the lady asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight.

Adhering to the instruction, she visited the grotto every day for the fortnight, much against her mother’s wishes who forbade her to go. The regular visions that she had during this period came to be known as la Quinzaine sacrée, or ‘holy fortnight’.

Following the authenticity of her visions, Bernadette garnered a lot of public attention which she despised. In an urgency to get out of public attention, she went to a hospice school, which was managed by Sisters of Charity of Nevers. It was here that Bernadette learned to read and write.

Despite her wish to join the Carmelites, she did not enter the same as her frail health did not allow her for any strict contemplative order.

On July 29, 1866 she along with 42 other candidates took on the religious habit of postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers. She was given the name, Marie-Bernarde, by Mother Superior.

She spent much of her later life working in the hospital as an assistant. Additionally, she served as the sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments.

Her health condition deteriorated further when she contracted tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee. The bad health restricted her to take active part in the day-to-day on goings