Apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette

Saturday, February 11, 2012

ONE of the most renowned apparitions of our Blessed Mother happened in Lourdes, France. On February 11, 1858, the Blessed Mother appeared to a girl named Bernadette Soubrious. Her family was one of the poorest in town and Bernadette was sickly girl, uneducated but had a pure heart.

Bernadette went with her sisters Toinette and Jeanne Abadie to collect some firewood and bones in order to buy some bread. After taking off her shoes and stockings to wade through the water near the Grotto of Massabielle, she said she heard the sound of two gusts of wind but the trees and bushes nearby did not move.

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She said she saw a light in the grotto and a girl, as small as she was, dressed all in white apart from the blue belt fastened around her waist and the golden yellow roses, one on each foot, the color of her rosary.

Amazed, Bernadette made the sign of the Cross and prays the rosary with the Lady who disappeared without saying anything.

Altogether, there were 18 apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette in Lourdes. Three days after on February 14, sensing an inner call, Bernadette returned to the Grotto “to see if I was not deluded”. She begins her rosary and blesses herself with holy water; the Lady smiled at her without saying a word.

February 18, Thursday of Holy Week, she asked the Lady to write her name. The Lady answered: “It is not necessary,” and adds, “Would you be kind enough to come here for fifteen days? I can promise you that I cannot make you happy in this world but in the other.”

On Good Friday, accompanied by her mother and aunt, Bernadette came to the Grotto with a candle. The following day, 30 people came to see Bernadette in ecstasy. They were impressed by her calmness, her fervor and her joy.

Easter Sunday, February 21, a hundred people started to mill in the apparition site in the early morning to see Bernadette. The police who were unbelieving looked on.

February 23, at 5:30 a.m., 150 people, including Mr. Estrada, a tax collector who was critical and skeptical, saw Bernadette in ecstasy. He was moved by the experience and started telling the people about it.

The people doubled in number for the 8th apparition on February 24th. This time, when Bernadette was in ecstacy, her face expressed unutterable sadness reflecting that of Our Lady who told her: “Penance. Pray to God for the conversion of sinners. Go kiss the earth in penitence for sinners.”

Lourdes is famous for the healing powers of the water from the Grotto. It was on the 9th apparition February 25th that Bernadette discovered the source. There were more than 300 people, including dignitaries, who waited expectantly to see the ecstatic, radiant Bernadette.

They saw her walk on her knees, eating grass, scratch the earth in the cave and her back face daubed….Some said she was crazy, ‘she is merdeuse” which literally translates she is a “little shit”.

Bernadette only did as the Lady asked. ‘Go drink at the fountain and wash yourself there”. The water gradually became clearer and clearer. “Three times I dug and it was dirty. The fourth time, I could drink”.

On February 27, the Lady returns and asks the same gestures of penance from Bernadette - that is, drinking water from the spring and to kiss the earth.

On the 11th apparition, over a thousand people were gathered. Bernadette repeated the acts of penance demanded by Our Lady. Some imitated her, others scoffed. Police Commissioner Jacomet questioned her and then released her.

It was on the 12th apparition, a Monday, March 1 when the first miracle happened. It was midnight and over a crowd of 1,500 was present. Bernadette repeated the same gestures of penance.

Catherine Latapie who travelled hours to come to Lourdes, puts her arm in the water. Catherine had injured her right hand after a fall from a tree in October 1856.

This accident caused a subluxation of the humerus, which was easily reducible, but owing to the traumatic stretching of the brachial plexus, she was left with an ulnar type of paralysis. She could not use the last two fingers of her right hand, which were held in typical palmar flexion. She was also at the end of the term of her third pregnancy.

Straightaway her fingers returned to normal. They had regained their movements and suppleness. She could flex and extend them with the same facility as she could before the accident. With haste she returned home, and the same evening-- this detail enabled the chronicling of the date of the cure - she gave birth to her third child. He was ordained a priest in 1882.
Our Lady entrusted a mission to Bernadette which she proclaimed in the 13th apparition. “Go tell the priests to come here and build a chapel”.

Accompanied by her aunts, Bernadette brought the request to the parish priest, a reluctant Fr. Peyramale. He wanted to know who this woman is and what her name is.

The 14th apparition our Lady did not appear to Bernadette in the presence of 3,000 people. However, it was upon Bernadette’s return later that day after school that Our Lady renews her request.

A large crowd of 7,000 gathered on March 4, but Our Lady still did not divulge her name. Bernadette told them that they must wait.

It was on the feast of the Annunciation March 25th on the 16th apparition when Bernadette asked three times the Lady for her name. At the fourth time, she looked up to heaven joining hands and she said to me: “Que soy era Immaculada Councepcion”.

Bernadette ran to the parish priest’s house repeating the words she does not understand. Much moved, the priest acknowledged what Pope Pius IX, had defined as a truth of faith four years earlier in 1854.

She is the Immaculate Conception because she was created in her mother’s (St. Anne) womb without original sin because she was going to be the Mother of Jesus.

On Easter Wednesday, Bernadette feels drawn to the Grotto and enters into a long, silent contemplative trance in the presence of Our Lady. She holds a large lit candle. There were a thousand people, including Dr. Dozous who came in the name of science.

The candle flames lick the hands of Bernadette without burning her. After the ecstasy, the doctor examined the two hands of the visionary and exclaims: “There is nothing”.

After the miracle of the candle, the last apparition happened on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, 1858. For weeks the whole town was excited. To avoid disturbances, the authorities have barricaded the Grotto which is banned to the public.

Bernadette remained outside the barrier. She waited until the evening to enter. She began her rosary. The Blessed Mother was silent like in her first apparitions. Bernadette says: “I saw only the Blessed Virgin…I have never seen her more beautiful.”

The little village of Lourdes had been greatly honored by the appearances of the Blessed Mother. Between four to six million people go to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes to “drink at the spring and wash in it”.

Because of great faith to the Blessed Mother, many people of different illnesses were miraculously healed and testimonies of renewed faith fill many books.

Bernadette said, "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith."

A recent pilgrim to Lourdes is my friend Myrna Dessabelle. Myrna is a devotee of Our Lady and is very attached to St. Bernadette.

I asked Myrna what her experience in Lourdes meant to her. Myrna was at a loss of words on how to zero in on her encounter. There was euphoria to be in the blessed place where Our Lady appeared.

She was ecstatic to drink of the water and to bathe in it. She did the Stations of the Cross. Although it was a tedious exercise, her reflection was that, if this is difficult for me when I am doing it on a leisurely pace, she couldn’t fathom the depth of the agony Jesus felt on His way to Calvary.

Myrna lost her husband not so long ago and is still coping with widowhood. However, the pilgrimage to Lourdes reinforced her faith and she is counting her blessings. When God has something to say to us, He comes to us where we are.

What happened to Bernadette is what we are all invited to discover in our lives.

“Whatever may be your poverty, your distress, stand upright; do not lose hope”.

We must tell ourselves that we have value in the sight of God; that we mean something to Him. God speaks to us today and every day. He makes a promise that He will always remain faithful. “I have engraven you in the palm of my hand”……..You mean so much more to me!