Saint Bernadette: what you didn't know about the saint who saw the Madonna
April 16 Saint Bernadette. Everything we know about the Apparitions and the Lourdes message it comes from Bernadette. Only she has seen and therefore it all depends on her testimony. So who is Bernadette? Three periods in his life can be distinguished: the silent years of childhood; a "public" life during the period of the Apparitions; a "hidden" life as a religious in Nevers.
Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes, at that time a small town in the Pyrenees, on 7 January 1844 into a family of millers, quite well-to-do in the early years of Bernadette's life. Bernadette has a precarious health, suffers from stomach pain and, struck by cholera during an epidemic, will have chronic asthma as a result. It is one of the children who at that time, in France, did not know how to read or write, because they had to work. She went to school from time to time, in the poor girls' class of the hospice of Lourdes, run by the “Sisters of Charity of Nevers”. On January 21, 1858, Bernadette returned to Lourdes: she wanted to make her First Communion ... He will do it on June 3, 1858.
It is in this period that the Apparitions begin. Among the occupations of ordinary life, such as looking for dry wood, here is Bernadette confronted with the mystery. A noise "like a gust of wind", a light, a presence. What is his reaction? Immediately demonstrate common sense and ability of remarkable discernment; believing she is wrong, she makes use of her human faculties: she looks, rubs her eyes, tries to understand .. Then, she turns to her companions to ascertain her impressions: «Have you seen something? ".
Saint Bernadette: the visions of the Madonna
He immediately has recourse to God: he says the rosary. He resorts to the Church and asks Don Pomian for advice in his confession: "I saw something white that had the shape of a lady." When questioned by Commissioner Jacomet, she responds with surprising confidence, prudence and conviction in an uneducated girl. He talks about the Apparitions with precision, without ever adding or subtracting anything. Only once, terrified by the roughness of the rev. Peyramale, adds a word: Mister parish priest, the Lady always asks for the chapel Bernadette goes to the Grotto, the Lady is not there. In conclusion, Bernadette had to respond to onlookers, admirers, journalists and appear before civil and religious commissions of inquiry. Here she is now subtracted from nullity and projected to have to become a public figure: a real media storm hits her. It took a lot of patience and humor to endure and preserve the genuineness of his testimony.
Saint Bernadette: she accepts nothing: "I want to remain poor". She will not trade in medals "I'm not a merchant", and when they show her pictures with her portrait, she exclaims: "ten sous, that's all I'm worth! In this situation, it is not possible to live in the Cachot, Bernadette must be protected. The parish priest Peyramale and the mayor Lacadé come to an agreement: Bernadette will be welcomed as a "sick indigent" at the hospice run by the Sisters of Nevers; he arrived there on July 15, 1860. At 16, he began learning to read and write. One can still see, in the church of Bartrès, his "rods" traced. Subsequently, he will often write letters to the family and also to the Pope! Still living in Lourdes, he often visits the family who in the meantime have moved into the "paternal house". She assists some sick people, but above all she seeks her own path: good for nothing and without dowry, how can she become religious? Finally he can enter the Sisters of Nevers "because they did not force me". From that moment on he had a clear idea: «In Lourdes, my mission is over». Now he has to cancel himself to make way for Mary.
The true message of Our Lady in Lourdes
She herself used this expression: "I came here to hide." In Lourdes, she was Bernadette, the seer. In Nevers, she becomes Sister Marie Bernarde, the saint. Often there has been talk of the nuns' severity towards her, but it must be understood exactly that Bernadette was a coincidence: she had to escape curiosity, protect her, and also protect the Congregation. Bernadette will tell the story of the Apparitions before the community of the gathered sisters the day after her arrival; then he won't have to talk about it anymore.
April 16 Saint Bernadette. She will be kept in the Mother House while she aspired to be able to look after the sick. On the day of the profession, no occupation is foreseen for her: then the Bishop will assign them "The task of praying". "Pray for sinners" said the Lady, and she will be faithful to the message: "My weapons, you will write to the Pope, are prayer and sacrifice". The constant illnesses will make her a "pillar of the infirmary" and then there are the interminable sessions in the parlor: "These poor Bishops, they would do better to stay at home". Lourdes is very far away… going back to the Grotto will never happen! But every day, spiritually, she makes her pilgrimage there.
It does not speak of Lourdes, lives it. «You must be the first to live the message», says Fr Douce, her confessor. And in fact, after being a nurse's assistant, she slowly enters the reality of being sick. He will make it "his occupation", accepting all the crosses, for sinners, in an act of perfect love: "After all, they are our brothers". During the long sleepless nights, joining the masses that are celebrated all over the world, she offers herself as a "living crucified" in the immense battle of darkness and light, associated with Mary with the mystery of the Redemption, with her eyes fixed on the crucifix: «here I draw my strength». Dies a Nevers on April 16, 1879, at 35 years old. The Church will proclaim her a saint on December 8, 1933, not for having been favored by the Apparitions, but for the way she responded to them.