Whenever someone sees the Blessed Virgin Mary or Jesus comes to them, they're not usually someone special. Mary picked three shepherd children at Fatima, and Jesus picked a young nun named Sister Faustina in Poland. They don't go to the rich, famous, and powerful. They go to the small, humble, and meek. That might be one of the reasons that whenever someone sees an apparition, it isn't believed to be true at first. Why on earth would the Queen of Heaven come to poor children? Well, the Queen of Heaven did just that when she traveled to the small town of Lourdes, France, to speak to a young fourteen year old girl named Bernadette.
Bernadette was the oldest of six children. She had a disease called asthma that affected her breathing. Because of this, she couldn't go to school, and she couldn't read or write.
When she was fourteen, she went with her sister and her sister's friend to gather firewood. They came to a place called Massabielle, where there was a small grotto. Her sister and friend waded through the creek to get firewood from the grotto, but the water was too cold and would hurt Bernadette, so she was told to stay on the other side of the creek. While she was waiting, she felt strong, cold, winds. She looked towards the grotto and saw a figure there. The woman was beautiful! She had a white robe, a blue sash, a veil, a rosary in her hands, and a yellow rose on each foot.
Bernadette didn't know who the woman was, and she was very afraid. She found that she could not make the Sign of the Cross until the woman made the Sign of the Cross. She took out her rosary and prayed. The woman disappeared after Bernadette finished praying the rosary. When Bernadette stood up, she decided to wade through the creek to get to her companions. When she did, the cold creek turned warm and it was easier for her to walk through.
Bernadette told her companions what had happened, but even though Bernadette made her friend and sister promise not to tell her mother, they told anyway. They believed Bernadette was not really seeing anything; they believed it was just her imagination. Many people told Bernadette to stop going, but she went anyway. More and more people joined her at Massabielle every time she went. Only Bernadette could see the apparition.
Bernadette and a woman from the town went to the grotto together, with the permission of Bernadette's mother. They went with a pencil and a piece of paper so Bernadette could write down what she said. But the woman in the grotto told Bernadette that she didn't need to write anything, but to come every day for fifteen days. The woman told her that she promised to make her happy in heaven, but not on earth.
As Bernadette's story got out, more people came to the grotto. Doctors came to examine her. All the doctors said the same thing: there was nothing wrong with her. The government was getting mad at Bernadette, so they forbade her from ever returning to the grotto. Bernadette told them she could do no such thing. She just had to see the woman at the grotto every day! The government told her that if she didn't promise to never return to the grotto, she would be sent to jail.
Bernadette kept going to the grotto every day. One day, at the grotto, the woman told her to eat the plants in the grotto and drink from the spring. Massabielle had never had a spring, so Bernadette dug a hole in the ground and covered her face with dirt. After she had left, someone found that there was water coming out of the whole in the ground where Bernadette had dug! The water coming from the spring cured many people.
Bernadette also brought a candle with her to the grotto when she went. Once, while she was watching the woman, she placed her hand over the candle without knowing it. The flames burned right through her hand, but Bernadette wasn't burned or hurt in any way.
On the Feast of the Annunciation, the woman told Bernadette her name. "I am the Immaculate Conception." Bernadette didn't know what the Immaculate Conception was, so she asked a priest what it was. When he heard that the woman was called the "Immaculate Conception", he knew that the apparition was real because Bernadette didn't know what it meant.
After all Bernadette's visions were over, Bernadette joined a religious order - the Sisters of Charity. She lived as a Sister of Charity until her death at age 35. She was buried in the convent, but they took her out of the ground to put her body in a church, but they found that her body was just like it was when she had been buried 30 years earlier! Her feast day is April 6.
Saint Bernadette, PRAY FOR US!
