Bernadette Soubirous was a young girl from Lourdes, France, who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in a grotto near her home in 1858. She became a saint of the Catholic Church and her body is said to be incorrupt, meaning that it has not decayed after death. But what was the cause of her death and how did she live her short life?
Early Life and Apparitions
Bernadette was born on January 7, 1844, to a poor and humble family. She was the eldest of nine children, but only five survived infancy. She suffered from various illnesses, such as cholera, asthma, and tuberculosis of the bone. She was also uneducated and illiterate, and spoke only the local dialect of Occitan.
On February 11, 1858, when she was 14 years old, she went with her sister and a friend to collect firewood near the river Gave. There, she saw a vision of a beautiful lady dressed in white and blue, holding a rosary, in a niche of a rock. She fell on her knees and prayed the rosary with the lady, who smiled at her and then disappeared.
Bernadette returned to the same spot for the next 17 days, and each time she saw the lady, who spoke to her and asked her to do various things, such as drink from a spring, wash herself, pray for sinners, and tell the priests to build a chapel there. The lady also revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, a dogma that had been defined by the Pope four years earlier.
The apparitions attracted many people, some of whom believed Bernadette and others who doubted or mocked her. The local authorities tried to stop her from going to the grotto, but she persisted. The Church also investigated her claims and eventually declared them worthy of belief in 1862.
Religious Life and Death
After the apparitions, Bernadette faced many trials and hardships. She was harassed by the media, the public, and even some clergy, who wanted to question her, examine her, or exploit her fame. She also suffered from worsening health problems, especially in her knees, which were infected by the dirty water of the spring.
In 1866, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, a religious order that ran a hospice and a school. She took the name Sister Marie-Bernarde and lived a simple and humble life of prayer and service. She was assigned to various tasks, such as nursing, sewing, and sacristy work. She was also obedient to her superiors, who sometimes treated her harshly or indifferently.
She died on April 16, 1879, at the age of 35, from tuberculosis of the bone. Her last words were “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner.” Her body was buried in the convent cemetery, but later exhumed and found to be intact, despite the passage of time and the dampness of the soil. Her body was placed in a glass reliquary in the convent chapel, where it can still be seen today.
Legacy and Veneration
Bernadette was beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI. Her feast day is celebrated on February 18 in France and on April 16 elsewhere. She is the patron saint of Lourdes, the sick, the poor, and those ridiculed for their faith.
The grotto where she saw the Virgin Mary became a major pilgrimage site and a place of healing and miracles. Millions of people visit it every year and bathe in the water of the spring. Many cures have been reported and verified by medical and ecclesiastical authorities.
Bernadette’s story is an example of how God can choose the weak and the lowly to manifest His glory and grace. She was a simple and humble girl who followed the will of God and endured many sufferings with patience and faith. She was not a visionary, but a witness, who shared the message of the Immaculate Conception and the call to conversion and penance.
