148th Anniversary of the Feast of our Lady of Lourdes: The Lady reveals she is the 'Immaculate Conception'

Around 7 a.m. of March 3, 1858, Bernadette went with her mother, Louise, to the Massabielle Grotto. Some 4,000 people were waiting there for her. The Vision did not appear and the crowd was disappointed and peeved.

Bernadette went home and then on to school with a heavy heart. This is the second time that the Lady had not kept the appointment. After school, she felt inside "an irresistible force" and in the afternoon she returned to the grotto with her uncle, Andre Sajous and her cousin, Jeanne Vedere. No one was there - the Vision appeared. This is the fourteenth apparition.

Some significant events of that day included Fr. Peyramale being beset by doubts. He went to seek advice from his friend Abbe Ribes in Tarbes. That evening Bernadette came to see him for the third time. In the course of a single day, she found him completely changed. No longer is he uncertain and tolerant but rather skeptical and reproving.

At 11 p.m., Commissar Jacomet, the secretary of the mayor M. Jonas, and police sergeant Angla gave the grotto a thorough inspection.

On Thursday of March 4, 1858 at 4 a.m., Commissar Jacomet once again inspected the grotto. Four policemen under the direction of Corporal Capdeville were detailed to watch. This was the day of the great appointment, the last of the fortnight arranged. Everyone was expecting something extraordinary, perhaps a miracle. The local forces of law and order were present in some strength.

Commissar Jacomet, Jeanne Vedere and Bernadette's two aunts were there at the grotto together with 7,000 to 8,000 other people. Bernadette came to the grotto after the half-past six Mass, accompanied by two gendarmes, one on each side.

The fifteen apparitions lasted 45 minutes with the usual prayers, ecstasy and penitential gestures and once again the question as to her identity made the Apparition smile. That was all. The upshot of all these? Disappointment and ill feeling among the crowd, but satisfaction and a sigh of relief from the public authorities.

In the afternoon, Bernadette went again to Fr. Peyramale to convey anew the request of the apparition - the building of a Shrine and a pilgrimage to the grotto. Fr. Peyramale insisted on knowing the identity of the Apparition.

There is a break in the apparitions during which time Bernadette, for some 20 days from March 5 to 24, 1858, no longer visited the grotto. She no longer felt that "irresistible force" inviting her. This was a salutary pause for her to regain her serenity and to continue her preparation at school for her First Holy Communion.

On March 18, 1858, Bernadette was interrogated by the Imperial Procurator of Lourdes, M. Jacques Vitale Dutour with Commissar Jacomet in attendance.

There was a total quiet in Lourdes on the evening of March 24, 1858. For many the events at the grotto had become a fading memory. As the days passed, Bernadette returned to silence and to anonymity. Since March 25, 1858 was the Feast of the Annunciation, some people indulged the secret hope that something extraordinary would happen.

For her part, Bernadette began to feel again that "irresistible force" and went to the grotto at 5 a.m. Her parents went with her as they thought they might be alone, but in the half-light they saw moving shadows. Commissar Jacomet, the little seer's implacable observer, was there too at the grotto.

Three times, Bernadette asked the Apparition who she was and finally the answer came.

"After the fortnight, I asked her again three times one after the other. She went on smiling so I dared ask her once more. This time, however, she raised her eyes to heaven, joined her hands about her breast and said to me: " I am the Immaculate Conception." These are the last words she addressed to me. Her eyes were blue."

Bernadette ran off at once to the priest's house to tell him the identity of the Apparition. Fr. Peyramale, on the other hand, was surprised and disconcerted. In Bernadette's words he understood everything. He suddenly came to realize the meaning of this whole thing - he became more and more convinced that the events at Massabielle were of supernatural origin and that little Bernadette was becoming the messenger to the world of the Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes.

There was another interval when no apparitions occurred from March 26 to April 6, 1858. The events of March 25 had brought the grotto to the forefront of public attention and renewed the influx of pilgrims. The local authorities were alarmed and took drastic measures. With the sixteenth apparition, Bernadette's troubles and sufferings returned and worsened. On March 27th, she was subjected to a medical and psychiatric examination by Drs. Belancie, Lacrampen and Peyrus on the order of Prefect Massy of Tarbes. The intention of this examination was to confine the seer in a sanatorium for those suffering from nervous problems and mental imbalance.

The interrogation and examination lasted over two hours. On March 31, 1858, after four days of reflection, the three medical men arrived at a consensus and sent to the mayor of Lourdes and the Prefect report, which remained a masterpiece of compromise.

It was on April 7, 1858 when the 17th apparition occurred around 5 a.m. About a hundred people were there. It was in the course of this apparition that the "miracle of the candle" occurred.

For some 10 to 15 minutes, Bernadette held her hands cupped around the flame of her candle. The flame, blown by the breeze, flickered about her fingers without burning them. As soon as it ended, Bernadette instantly withdrew her hands and let the candle fall to the ground.

Dr. Dozous, who was among those in the grotto and who had been observing closely, went at once to examine Bernadette's hands and was surprised to see that it was completely unharmed without least sign of a burn. On April 9, 1858, two days after the miracle he told Commissar Jacomet: "I have examined her hands - there is not the slightest trace of a burn. Now I believe "I have seen with my own eyes."

Dr. Dozous in his testimony on November 12, 1859, said, "I had enough. I was convinced that there was something mysterious and supernatural about those occurrences."

The longest interval in the history of apparitions occurred from April 8 to July 15, 1858. These three months saw events of some moment like on July 12, Bernadette made her First Holy Communion in the chapel of the Lourdes hospice. The phenomenon of the "bogus apparitions" assumed particular importance - out of respect for religion and the supernatural, a decree of closure and a prohibition on access to the grotto was imposed. This consisted of five articles promulgated on June 10, 1858 - the taking of water from the spring at the grotto was prohibited; access to the municipal property called "Massabielle bank" was prohibited; a barricade was to be erected to prevent access to the grotto; any contravention of the ordinance carried with it prosecution; and the police and municipal authorities were in charge with the imposition of the ordinance.

Bernadette did not mention the eighteenth and final apparition that occurred on July 16, 1858. In her account neither did she allude to it at the Subcommission of Inquiry on November 17, 1858, nor before the Bishop, Msgr. Laurence, on December 7, 1860.

Bernadette regarded the eighteenth apparition as private, as exclusively to her personally. Various testimonies spoke about it. The grotto was still blocked off by order of the Prefecture and the prohibition on access was still enforced. But once again, Bernadette felt that "irresistible force". Her aunt, Lucille Castérot, found a solution. They went another way to the grotto. They took Pau road and came to Ribere meadow, at another bank of the river opposite to the barricade grotto some 150 meters away since this area does not fall under the designated prohibited area.

From this spot, Bernadette saw the Immaculate Virgin for the last time. "I saw neither the barricade nor the river Gave. It seemed as if I were in front of the grotto just like the other times. I only saw the Virgin. Never had I seen her so beautiful." When it was over, Bernadette got to her feet in her customary slow and recollected way. Her face was eloquent of complete happiness. - From the book "Lourdes"