What really happened in Lourdes? The description of the eighteen apparitions

Thursday 11 February 1858: the meeting
First appearance. Accompanied by her sister and friend, Bernardette travels to Massabielle, along the Gave, to collect bones and dry wood. While she is taking off her stockings to cross the river, she hears a noise that resembled a gust of wind, she raises her head towards the Grotto: "I saw a lady dressed in white. He wore a white suit, a white veil, a blue belt and a yellow rose on each foot. " He makes the sign of the cross and recites the rosary with the Lady. After the prayer, the Lady abruptly disappears.

Sunday 14 February 1858: blessed water
Second apparition. Bernardette feels an internal force that pushes her to return to the Grotto despite her parents' ban. After much insistence, the mother allows him. After the first ten of the rosary, she sees the same Lady appear. He throws her blessed water. The Lady smiles and bows her head. After the prayer of the rosary, it disappears.

Thursday 18 February 1858: the lady speaks
Third apparition. For the first time, the Lady speaks. Bernardette hands her a pen and a piece of paper and asks her to write her name. She replies: "It is not necessary", and adds: "I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the other. Can you have the kindness to come here for fifteen days? "

Friday 19 February 1858: short and silent apparition
Fourth apparition. Bernardette goes to the Grotto with a blessed and lit candle. It is from this gesture that the habit of bringing candles and lighting them in front of the Grotto arose.

Saturday 20 February 1858: in silence
Fifth apparition. The Lady taught her a personal prayer. At the end of the vision, a great sadness invades Bernardette.

Sunday 21 February 1858: "Aquero"
Sixth apparition. The Lady shows up to Bernardette early in the morning. A hundred people accompany her. She is then interrogated by the police commissioner, Jacomet, who wants Bernadette to tell him everything she has seen. But she will only talk to him about "Aquero" (That)

Tuesday 23 February 1858: the secret
Seventh apparition. Surrounded by one hundred and fifty people, Bernardette goes to the Grotto. The apparition reveals to her a secret "only for herself".

Wednesday 24 February 1858: "Penance!"
Eighth apparition. Lady's message: “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners! You will kiss the earth in expiation of sinners! "

Thursday 25 February 1858: the source
Ninth appearance. Three hundred people are present. Bernadette says: "You told me to go and drink at the source (...). I only found some muddy water. On the fourth test I was able to drink. She also made me eat some grass that was near the spring. So the vision disappeared. And then I left. " In front of the crowd that says to her: "Do you know that they think you crazy doing such things?" She only replies: "It is for sinners."

Saturday 27 February 1858: silence
Tenth apparition. Eight hundred people are present. The apparition is silent. Bernardette drinks the spring water and performs the usual gestures of penance.

Sunday 28 February 1858: ecstasy
Eleventh apparition. More than a thousand people witness the ecstasy. Bernadette prays, kisses the earth and walks with her knees as a sign of penance. She is immediately taken to the home of Judge Ribes who threatens to put her in prison.

Monday 1st March 1858: first miracle
Twelfth apparition. More than fifteen hundred people are gathered and among them, for the first time, a priest. In the night, Caterina Latapie, from Loubajac, goes to the Cave, plunges her sprained arm into the spring water: her arm and her hand regain their mobility.

Tuesday 2 March 1858: message to the priests
Thirteenth apparition. The crowd grows more and more. The Lady says to her: "Tell the priests to come here in procession and to build a chapel." Bernardete speaks to the priest Peyramale, parish priest of Lourdes. The latter only wants to know one thing: the name of the Lady. In addition, it requires a test: to see the Grotto's rose garden (or dog rose) bloom in the middle of winter.

Wednesday March 3, 1858: a smile
Fourteenth apparition. Bernardette goes to the Grotto already at 7 in the morning, in the presence of three thousand people, but the vision does not come! After school, she feels the inner invitation of the Lady. He goes to the cave and asks for his name. The answer is a smile. The parish priest Peyramale repeats to her: "If the Lady really wants a chapel, let her say her name and make the rose garden of the Grotto bloom".

Thursday March 4, 1858: around 8 people
Fifteenth apparition. The increasingly large crowd (about eight thousand people) awaits a miracle at the end of this fortnight. The vision is silent The parish priest Peyramale remains in his position. For the next 20 days, Bernardette will no longer go to the Grotto, no longer feeling the irresistible invitation.

Thursday 25 March 1858: the name that was expected!
Sixteenth apparition. The Vision finally reveals His name, but the rose garden (of dog rose) on which the Vision places its feet in the course of His apparitions, does not bloom. Bernardette says: "She rolled her eyes, joining, in a sign of prayer, her hands that were outstretched and open to the earth, she gave me:" Que soy was Immaculada Councepciou. " The young visionary starts running and continually repeats, during the journey, these words that she does not understand. Words that instead impress and move the gruff parish priest. Bernardette ignored this theological expression that described the Holy Virgin. Just four years earlier, in 1854, Pope Pius IX had made it a truth (a dogma) of the Catholic faith.

Wednesday 7 April 1858: the miracle of the candle
Seventeenth apparition. During this apparition, Bernardette keeps her candle lit. The flame surrounded his hand for a long time without burning it. This fact is immediately noted by a doctor present in the crowd, Doctor Douzous.

Friday 16 July 1858: last appearance
Eighteenth apparition. Bernardette hears the mysterious appeal to the Grotto, but access is forbidden and is made inaccessible by a railing. He then goes in front of the Grotta, on the other side of the Gave, on the prairie. “It seemed to me that I was in front of the Grotto, at the same distance as the other times, I only saw the Virgin, I have never seen her so beautiful!