148TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES: Who was Bernadette Soubiroux?

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes started on February 11, 1858 in Lourdes, France, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared for the first time to Bernadette Soubiroux at the Massabielle Grotto.

The Lady asked for a chapel to be built at the site of her apparition while revealing herself to the young girl that she is "the Immaculate Conception."

The Massabielle Grotto where the Lady appeared to Bernadette eighteen times, the last time of which was on July 16, 1858, is the heart and major attraction of Lourdes. The name Massabielle derives from Massevielle, which means "the old rock." It is a mass of rock some 27 meters high surrounded by trees and covered with bushes and ivy.

The first Apparition took place on the morning of February 11, a Thursday, when the day was darkened by thick, damp fog typical of Lourdes. The Soubiroux family home had no more firewood. Bernadette, her younger sister Antoinette and their friend Jeanne Abadie went to the area of Massabielle to make bundles of firewood and to pick up some bones to sell.

When they got as far as the Savy mill, instead of going to the wood, they followed the millrace until it brought them before the grotto. As Bernadette took off her stockings to cross the stream, the first apparition occurred.

Bernadette narrated what happened in her own account of the Apparitions. "I saw a Lady dressed in white. She wore a white dress and a white veil with a blue waistband and a yellow rose on each of her feet. Her rosary was yellow too. The Lady took the rosary from her arm and made the sign of the Cross. I wanted and managed to do likewise. I got down on my knees and began to recite the Rosary with the beautiful Lady. The Apparition moved the rosary beads between her fingers without moving her lips. When it was over, she made a sign for me to come near, but I didn't care to. Then suddenly, she disappeared."

Antoinette and Jeanne did not witness the apparition since they were busy gathering firewood nearby, but it was Bernadette who told them what happened when they were on their way home.

It was the beginning of the apparitions and the mission of Bernadette.

But who was Bernadette? She was born on January 7, 1844 at the mill of Boly to the couple Francois Soubiroux and Louise Casterot. On the 9th of January, she was christened Marie Bernarde at the parish church of Lourdes, St. Peter's.

Bernadette was about 10 months old when her mother lost her milk because of an accident and could no longer breastfeed her child. She was then entrusted to the care of a wet nurse named Marie Lagues, a friend of Louise, in Batres, a place that lies about four kilometers from Lourdes.

On April 1, 1846, Bernadette was 26 months old when she came back to her parents and remained there until June 24, 1854. In 1855, a plague broke in Lourdes. Bernadette, who was just 11, was affected by it. Her sores were treated in a rudimentary way. Repeated friction with rags of straw exposed her sores in order to eliminate the cancerous parts. Bernadette recovered, but she got asthma from which she suffered for the rest of her life.

On June 12, 1858, Bernadette took her First Communion in the chapel of the hospice. She decided to become a nun on July 1866 as she chose the Order of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers.

It was on March 28, 1878 when she was struck by another asthma attack. From then her health condition deteriorated and she died 3 p.m. of April 16, 1879. Her asthma and tuberculosis wasted her away, leading her to the grave at the age of 35.

On December 8, 1933, Pope Pius XI instituted extraordinarily the Feast of Immaculate Conception. Pius XI himself proclaimed Bernadette a saint. On the occasion of the recognition for the process of canonization, Bernadette's body had been found in a perfect state.

Today, her body still lies intact and covered with a very thin layer of wax for preservation. Her body rests inside a bronze and crystal casket. - From the book "Lourdes"