Saint Bernadette of Lourdes

Bernadette Soubirous was a poor, sickly miller’s daughter of fourteen when, in 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to her eighteen times in the grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes. On 25 March the Lady gave her name: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Lourdes became the greatest place of pilgrimage in France, and its spring has been the scene of many healings.

Bernadette did not stay to enjoy any fame. In 1866 she entered the Sisters of Charity at Nevers, in central France, and lived there quietly, often ill, for thirteen years. She once said of herself that she was like a broom that Our Lady had used and then put back in its corner. She died on 16 April 1879, at thirty-five.

When her body was exhumed during the process for her beatification in 1909, it was found to be remarkably well preserved, without the smell of decay. It was examined again in 1919 and 1925. After the last examination the face and hands, which had darkened, were covered with thin masks of wax, and the body was placed in a glass reliquary in the chapel of the motherhouse, where it lies today.

She was canonized in 1933. Her feast day is 16 April.

Where

Chapel of Saint-Gildard (Espace Bernadette), Nevers, France

When to see it

In a glass reliquary in the convent chapel, open daily.

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap