At Nevers, likewise in France, Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, virgin, who, born in the town of Lourdes of a very poor family, while still a girl experienced the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate, and afterwards, having taken the religious habit, led a hidden and humble life.
Lifespan: 1844–1879
Beatified: 14 June 1925 by Pope Pius XI
Canonized: 8 December 1933 by Pope Pius XI, St. Peter’s Basilica
Memoria liturgica: 16 April
I will not live a single instant without living it in love.
Bernadette Soubirous
Born on 7 January 1844 in Lourdes, in south-western France, at the foot of the Pyrenees, Bernadette Soubirous lived in complete poverty, yet with her heart profoundly turned toward Mary. To her appeared, on many occasions, the “Lady” — as she herself was accustomed to call Our Lady — the Immaculate Conception, as the Virgin revealed herself to be in the apparition of 25 March 1858.
Between 11 February and 16 July of that year, Bernadette witnessed 18 apparitions of Mary in the Grotto of Massabielle. Pope Francis, in his Message for the World Day of the Sick 2017, recalled how “the humble girl of Lourdes” related that the Virgin, whom she called “the Beautiful Lady,” looked at her as one looks at a person.
These simple words describe the fullness of a relationship. Bernadette, poor, illiterate, and sick, feels looked upon by Mary as a person. The “Beautiful Lady” speaks to her with great respect, without pity.
Pope Francis, Message for the World Day of the Sick, 2017
From the outset of the apparitions, Bernadette became the voice of an event that resonated throughout the world, enduring numerous official interrogations on suspicion of fraud. Nothing broke her, while over the years an uncontrollable stream of people made their way to the Grotto of healings.
Bernadette, after her visits to the Grotto and through prayer, transforms her fragility into support for others; through love she becomes capable of enriching her neighbour and, above all, she offers her life for the salvation of humanity. The fact that the “Beautiful Lady” asks her to pray for sinners reminds us that the sick and suffering do not carry within themselves only the desire to be healed, but also the desire to live their lives in a Christian manner, even to the point of offering them as authentic missionary disciples of Christ.
Pope Francis, Message for the World Day of the Sick, 2017
Mary gave Bernadette the vocation of serving the sick and called her to become a Sister of Charity: on the evening of 7 July 1866 she entered Saint-Gildard, the motherhouse of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. Confined to bed by asthma, tuberculosis, and a bone tumour of the knee, she died at the age of 35: it was 16 April 1879.
Beatified in 1925, Pope Pius XI proclaimed her a saint on 8 December 1933.
Bernadette is the patron of farmworkers and shepherds.