Bernadette Soubirous was born to a poor family in Lourdes, in southern France, on January 7, 1844. Her family lived in a small one-room cottage that had once been a jail. Bernadette was often sick and had a hard time at school. One day the 14-year old Bernadette went with some friends to gather firewood. Suddenly, in a cave beside a river, she saw a beautiful Lady wearing a blue and white dress above a rose bush. The Lady smiled at Bernadette and made the Sign of the Cross with a golden rosary. Bernadette knelt down and began to pray.
Crowds began to follow Bernadette to the cave as the Virgin Mary’s visits continued. Our Lady appeared a total of 18 times to Bernadette, revealing herself as the Immaculate Conception. (The Church teaches that Mary was conceived without sin by a singular grace of God so that Jesus could be born from an immaculate womb.) Our Lady asked Bernadette to dig at a spot near the grotto, and suddenly a fresh cool spring of healing waters began to flow. Mary asked Bernadette to have a chapel built nearby, so people could come there to wash and drink. The water from this spring continues to show remarkable healing power to this day, bringing medically documented healings to many people.
Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, France, and died there from tuberculosis at the young age of 35. Lourdes is today the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. Each year more than 5 million people come to the grotto of Massabielle to pray to God Our Father, to honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and to seek healing of spirit, soul, and body.
The response of so many has made Lourdes a Town of Friendship, a world center of pilgrimage, and a special place where God meets His people.
Pope Pius XI canonized Saint Bernadette in 1933, and to this day, her body remains entirely and miraculously incorrupt, at her convent in Nevers, France.
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