The Story of Lourdes

Bernadette Soubirous was born on January 7th 1844, and two days later was baptised in the parish church of Lourdes. She had six brothers and two sisters, five of the brothers died before they were ten. When Bernadette was only a few months old, her mother had an accident and could not nurse her. At this time it was usual to breast feed babies for at least two years. So Bernadette went to live with her foster mother in Bartres which is about three miles outside Lourdes.

Her father was a miller. He ran the Boly Mill, but by 1854 he was unable to pay the rent for the mill. He was a very kind man who became very poor because he had given away too much food and drink to poor people. The man who owned the mill took it over and the Soubirous family had to leave so they moved into the cachot (an abandoned prison cell).

In 1855 when Bernadette was eleven, she caught cholera and was very ill indeed. This illness and her asthma made her very weak. Bernadette was still not very well so she was sent back to her foster mother at Bartrès. While she lived there she had the job of looking after the sheep. Bernadette so much wanted to join the catechism class to prepare for her First Holy Communion that she asked to go back home to Lourdes. Although she was fourteen she was put in a class of children seven or eight years old. Bernadette had never been able to go to school and she could not read or write and didn't even speak French, only patois.

It was on February 11th 1858 that Bernadette and her two sisters were out gathering firewood. Bernadette was left behind as her sisters crossed a small stream because she did not want to get ill again. While the others looked for wood Bernadette started to say her rosary. She heard a sound like a storm and looking across the stream she saw the apparition for the first time in a grotto at the foot of rock called Massabielle. She saw a lady dressed in white with a blue sash and a yellow rose on each foot. The lady did not speak, but made the sign of the cross. The vision disappeared suddenly. She was the only one who saw The Lady.

The lady did not speak until the third time she appeared to Bernadette. She asked Bernadette if she would like to meet her there every day for a fortnight, Bernadette said she would. She told Bernadette to tell the priests to have a chapel built there. Then she told her to drink at the spring. Not seeing one, she went to drink from the stream. The lady told Bernadette that the spring wasn't there, but pointed to a pool of muddy water. Bernadette scraped at the muddy ground and eventually fresh water appeared. She drank some and the vision disappeared.

Bernadette returned every day for a fortnight and on all but two occasions, the vision appeared. The lady insisted many times that the priests must build a chapel there, and that Bernadette must wash in the spring and that she must pray for sinners. During the fortnight the lady told Bernadette three secrets.

Many times Bernadette asked the lady who she was, but she would only smile. Eventually the lady said "Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou" - I am The Immaculate Conception. When asked by the priest if she knew what that meant, Bernadette did not. The phrase had only been applied to Mary four years before and would only be known amongst the clergy, so it was very improbable that an illiterate poor French girl would have heard it. Thus the local priest came to believe Bernadette's story and later Church investigations have confirmed the apparitions as genuine. There have been numerous miraculous healings reported related to the shrine and especially the water of the spring.

During the time that Our Lady appeared to Bernadette she gave her this message to pass on to people:

"I want people to come in procession,
to pray for sinners,
to do penance,
and to drink and wash in the waters of the spring."

Bernadette did all she had been asked to do by Our Lady. On June 3rd in the same year, at the age of fourteen Bernadette made her First Communion, at the Hospital Chapel in Lourdes, with the rest of her class.

In September Fr. Peyramale their parish priest helped the Soubirous family to move out of the Cachot. Bernadette was Confirmed in Lourdes by Bishop Laurence of Tarbes, on February 5th 1860. On June 15th in the same year Bernadette went to live with the nuns in Lourdes. She was sixteen years old. She lived with them for the next six years. The nuns looked after her while she helped with the sick in the hospital. For the first time in her life she was able to go to school.

Bernadette was a very small person, only four foot seven inches (140cms) tall. She looked more like an eleven year old child than a sixteen year old young woman. She found some lessons very difficult but she was very good at sewing. People may have expected her to be a very serious person and would have been surprised to find that she was full of fun, she liked to play jokes and enjoyed joining in the children's games. At other times she liked to be quiet and to pray.

January 18th 1862 was an important day for Bernadette. For it was on this day that the Bishop of Tarbes agreed that what she had seen and heard at the Grotto was really true. Her also said that a church was to be built near the Grotto just as Our Lady had asked.

Later that same year on April 28th, Bernadette once again became very ill and almost died.

Two years later in 1864, she was quite sure she wanted to become a nun, but it was a long time before she could leave Lourdes and go to the convent in Nevers. This was because she was often ill and also because so many people wanted to see her and talk about the times when she had seen Our Lady.

On July 3rd 1866 Bernadette left Lourdes for the convent at Nevers. She was now twenty-two years old. When she became a nun she was given the name of Sister Marie Bernard. At Nevers, life was not always easy. In the convent some of the nuns were jealous of the fuss made of her, but she was never unkind to them.

On October 30th 1867 Bernadette became a nun by making her Simple Vows. The Bishop gave her the job of praying.

From 1867 until 1873 Bernadette looked after the nuns who were sick at the convent. She was often ill herself but this only made her a really good nurse. She could cheer up the sick with her sense of fun and good humour.

Just after Easter Sunday in 1879 Bernadette became very ill once again. She was in great pain and was very weak. On Wednesday April 16th 1879 having joined in with the prayers of the other nuns around her bed, she died in peace at the age of thirty-six.

On the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th 1933, Bernadette was made a saint of the church.