St.

Bernadette
Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes on January 7, 1844 to Franois Soubirous and Louise Castrot. Francois, a miller, was handicapped by an eye injury ten years later and was then accused of stealing bread from a local baker, causing him to be jailed for eight days in "the Cachot". A drought left the surrounding areas with no wheat harvest and a cholera epidemic took many lives. Bernadette was infected and it left its mark on her. In 1857 extreme poverty left the family depending on a relative for accommodation, a small room of just 16 square meters. She experienced the deep love her parents had for each other and all the children but was isolated by the locals because of their circumstances and her simplicity. Her sickness affected her schooling and despite being 14 years of age she was not allowed to receive her First Holy Communion and was unable to read or write. In November of 1857 she was sent to Bartrs, the little village close to Lourdes to work on the farm. However, her desire to receive First Holy Communion brought her back to the village in January of 1858. While out walking with her sister and a friend to gather firewood near Massabielle, Bernadette was unable to keep up with them and had removed her socks and shoes to cross the stream and follow when she heard a gust of wind, and looking up, saw a very beautiful lady dressed in white with a blue belt and a yellow rose on each foot. She smiled at Bernadette and then made the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold. Bernadette fell on her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray the rosary. This was the first of the apparitions. She was to receive 18 apparitions until the last one on July 16th. During the apparitions she prayed the Rosary with 'the lady' and conversed with her. On Feb 19th Bernadette lit a candle at the grotto, a tradition that continues to these days with many millions of candles lit each year. By Sunday Feb. 21st, crowds were beginning to follow her and Bernadette's first of many official questionings started by Police Commissioner, Jacomet. Her eight visit with The Lady on Wednesday February 24 saw the first of the messages being given: The message of the Lady was: "Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!" The following day The Lady told her to drink from the spring, pointing out a spot, which to Bernadette was only a muddy area. Bernadette did as she was told and the crowd was appalled to see her digging up the mud and placing it at her mouth. Her response to the questioning crowd was 'It is for sinners'. The small spring begins to flow from the spot and a local girl, a friend of Bernadette's, plunges her dislocated arm into the spring. It is miraculously healed, the first of many to take place in those early days and so many since. On Tuesday March 2, The Lady gives Bernadette a message for the Parish Priest, Abb Peyramale, to build a chapel at the grotto. The Priest, still not believing, only wanted to know the name of the lady. On Thursday March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, the lady tells

Bernadette, "QUE SOY ERA IMMACULADA CONCEPCIOU." - "I am the Immaculate Conception". This theological expression had been assigned to the Blessed Virgin just four years earlier, in 1854, as Pope Pius IX declared this a truth of the Catholic Faith (a dogma). Bernadette could not have known this and her words left the Parish Priest puzzled. Bishop of Tarbes, the local Bishop, started a Church enquiry almost immediately and four years later declared the Apparitions as authentic in the name of the Church. The investigations showed many who were sick being cured by means not able to be explained by traditional medical methods. The Bishop, in his declaration concluded: "There is thus a direct link between the cures and the Apparitions, the Apparitions are of divine origin, since the cures carry a divine stamp. But what comes from God is the truth! As a result, the Apparition, calling herself the Immaculate Conception, that Bernadette saw and heard, is the Most Holy Virgin Mary! Thus we write: the finger of God is here." In 1866 Bernadette joined Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers and received the name Sister Marie-Bernard. She died in the convent at 55 years of age on April 16, 1879. On June 2, 1925, in the Consistory Hall, Pope Pius XI declared that Bernadette could be declared Blessed. On December 8, 1933, Pope Pius XI solemnly read the declaration of the Canonization of Bernadette. Her feast day is April 16.

www.moreprayers.com/saint-bernadette.html www.catholic.org/saints

PROJECT IN CLE (Adopt a Tree)

Prepared By: Justine Jun Magbanua Year 1 St. Raphael