Some Notes on Our

Lady of Lourdes:

In 1858, from 11 February to 16 July, our Blessed Mother appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. Although some others were present, she was the only one who could see and hear Our Lady.

The first appearance took place on 11 February 1858. Bernadette, her sister, Toinette, and a friend, Jeanne Abadie, were gathering firewood near the cave or grotto of Massabiele, about 1.5 kilometers from the town. While preparing to wade through the water near the grotto, she felt two gusts of wind, but the trees and bushes did not move.

In her own words: “As I raised my head to look at the grotto, I saw a lady dressed in white, with a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her Rosary; the beads of the Rosary were white... from the niche, or rather the dark alcove behind it, came a dazzling light.”

Bernadette tried to make the Sign of the Cross but could not, as her hands were trembling. The Lady smiled, and invited her to pray the Rosary with her.

Three days later, on Sunday, 14 February, Bernadette brought holy water to test if the apparition was of the devil. When the Lady appeared to her, Bernadette cast the holy water at her. The Lady simply smiled and bowed.

On 18 February, Bernadette told her companions that the Lady had instructed her to return to the grotto over a period of two weeks. The Lady promised Bernadette that she would be happy, not in this world, but in the next.

Bernadette was ordered by her parents never to return to the grotto. But she went anyway. The Lady asked for prayers and penitence for the conversion of sinners. On 25 February, the Lady told her to dig in the ground and drink from the spring she would find there. Although it was muddy at first, the spring became increasingly clearer and soon became a focal point for pilgrimages, with many miraculous cures attributed to the water. But then controversy surrounded the spring, and it was closed. Emperor Napoleon III ordered its reopening on 14 October 1858.

Under the cover of darkness, Bernadette was able to visit the barricaded grotto. There, on 25 March, the Lady told Bernadette, “Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou,” - --”I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Our Lady appeared to her at the grotto for the last time on 16 July. “I had never seen her so beautiful before,” Bernadette reported. She described Our Lady as a beautiful young girl of about 14 to 15 years old, about 4 feet 7 inches tall, about Bernadette’s own height. The now iconic statue that stands in the grotto niche is older and taller.

On 17 November 1858, the Church decided to investigate. After two months, the local bishop declared: “The Virgin Mary did indeed appear to Bernadette Soubirous.” Pope Pius IX approved the veneration of Lourdes. The image was pontifically crowned in 1876. The new basilica was consecrated in 1879.

Today, between four and six million pilgrims travel annually to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Some Notes on St. Bernadette:

Bernadette, the poor, sickly, and hardly educated young visionary, became a Sister of Charity at Nevers and was given the name Sr. Marie-Bernard. She contracted tuberculosis of the lungs and bones and passed away at the age of 36 on 16 April 1879, while praying the Rosary.

Renowned for her humility and piety, she often fell into ecstasy. She was beatified in 1921 and canonized in 1933, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Her mortal remains are incorrupt and are enshrined at her convent in Nevers, now a pilgrimage site.

The message of Our Lady of Lourdes highlights themes of faith, prayer, penance, and the importance of the Rosary. Her own life demonstrated the message she had received. When Mary revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, she herself confirmed the Marian dogma of 1854.

Prayer: Grant us, O Merciful God, protection in our weakness, that we, who keep the Memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God, may with the help of her intercession, rise up from our iniquities, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.