St. Bernadette, Lourdes, France, 1858
Feastday
16th April
Born 1844
Died 1879
Oldest
of 6 children in a very poor family headed by Francois and Louise Casterot.
Hired out as a servant from age 12 to 14. Shepherdess. On 11 February 1858,
around the time of her first Communion, she received a vision of the Virgin;
her own account of it is in the Reading section further in this document. She
received 18 more in the next 5 months, and was led to a spring of healing
waters. She moved into a house with the sisters of Nevers at Lourdes where she
lived, worked, and learned to read and write. The sisters cared to the sick and
indigent, and at age 22 they admitted Bernadette into their order since she was
both. Always sick, and often mistreated by her superiors, she died with a
prayer for Mary's aid. Body is incorruptible.1 (See below)
1. Taken from the Patron
Saints Index at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb06.htm
1.
The 1st Apparition Thursday, February 11, 1858
Bernadette’s description of Our Lady: “She has the appearance of a young girl of sixteen or seventeen. She is dressed in a white robe, girdled at the waist with a blue ribbon which flows down all around it. A yoke closes it in graceful pleats at the base of the neck. The sleeves are long and tight-fitting. She wears upon her head a veil which is also white. This veil gives just a glimpse of her hair and then falls down at the back below her waist. Her feet are bare but covered by the last folds of her robe except at the point where a yellow rose shines upon each of them. She holds on her right arm a rosary of white beads with a chain of gold shinning like the two roses on her feet.”
2. The Second Apparition-Sunday, February 14, 1858
No verbal exchange; the
visionary tests the apparition by pouring out Holy water
3.
The third Apparition -Thursday, February
18th, 1858
Our Lady’s words to the visionary: “There is no need for me to write down what I have to say to you….Will you be so kind as to come here every day for fifteen days?… I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next”
4. The fourth Apparition - Friday, February 19, 1858
No verbal exchange;
Bernadette’s prays the rosary, her face is transfigured and illuminated
5. The fifth Apparition -Saturday, February 20, 1858
No verbal exchange; Our
Lady privately teaches Bernadette a prayer to recite daily for the rest of her
life
6. The sixth Apparition -Sunday, February 21, 1858
Our Lady’s words to the
visionary: “Pray for sinners…”
7. The seventh Apparition -Tuesday, February 23, 1858
The visionary’s face is
transfigured, she kisses the ground near a rose bush and is entrusted with
three secrets, two hundred people attend
8. The eighth Apparition -Wednesday, February 24, 1858
The visionary turns to
the crowd of 400 and cries “Penitence, penitence, penitence!…”
9. The ninth
Apparition –Thursday, February 25, 1858
Bernadette
scratches at the moist ground around her, unearths a spring, drinks from it and
washes her face. Our Lady’s words to the visionary: “Drink from the fountain
and bathe in it…”
10. The tenth Apparition –Saturday, February 27, 1858
Our Lady’s word’s to the
visionary: “Kiss the ground on behalf of sinners…”
11. The eleventh
Apparition –Sunday, February 28, 1858
Two hundred gather
and Our Lady asks Bernadette to build a chapel on the site of the Grotto
12. The twelfth
Apparition –Monday, March 1, 1858
Our Lady Chides
Bernadette for not praying her rosary after being asked to do so earlier that
day
13. The
Thirteenth Apparition –Tuesday, March 2, 1858
No verbal exchange,
Bernadette prays the rosary and Our Lady is silent apart from some Glorias
14. The
fourteenth Apparition –Wednesday, March 3, 1858
Our Lady repeats
that she wants a chapel built by the clergy but the authorities demand to know
her identity
15. The
fifteenth Apparition –Thursday, March 4, 1858
No verbal exchange,
Bernadette is transfigured with a strange radiance, twenty thousand attend
expecting the rose bush at least to miraculously bloom
16. The
sixteenth Apparition –Thursday, March 25, 1858
Our Lady’s words to
the visionary: “I am the Immaculate Conception…”
17. The
seventeenth Apparition –Wednesday, April 7, 1858
No verbal exchange,
Bernadette unconsciously burns her finger by candle flame for 15 minutes but is
unperturbed in religious ecstasy
18. The
eighteenth Apparition –Friday July 16, 1858
No verbal exchange,
Bernadette prays
References
Taken
from Apparition: Our Lady of Lourdes
(http://www.ilourdes.com/Apparitions.htm)
“I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next…”