St. Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes, France on January 7, 1844. She was the eldest child of poor parents, and suffered from severe respiratory illness from a very young age. On February 11, 1858, Bernadette experienced the first of a series of apparitions of the Blessed Mother while she was gathering firewood near a grotto at the rock of Massabeille. Facing disbelief and even some hostility from the local authorities, religious, and townspeople, Bernadette persisted, returning to the grotto to speak to the “damiezelo” and pray the rosary. Bernadette reported that the Lady instructed her to “pray to God for sinners,” to tell the priests that “a chapel should be built and a procession formed” at that spot, and when Bernadette asked her who she was, she replied “I am the Immaculate Conception.” St. Bernadette’s final apparition was on July 16. Following these visions, when she was twenty years old, Bernadette desired to enter religious life, making her final vows in September, 1878. Her health continued to deteriorate, and she died on April 16, 1879. The grotto at Lourdes continues to be a place of pilgrimage, and miraculous healings have been attributed to the waters there. St. Bernadette is the patron of sick people, those ridiculed for their piety, and of Lourdes, and her feast day is April 16.
Sources: www.ewtn.com; www.catholic.org
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