February 11 + Our Lady of Lourdes

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, recalling a series of 18 appearances that the Blessed Virgin Mary made to a 14-year-old French peasant girl, Saint Bernadette Soubirous.

The Marian apparitions began February 11, 1858, ended July 16 that year and received the local bishop's approval after a four-year inquiry. These appearances came after Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus.

Born in January 1844, Bernadette Soubirous was the first child of her parents Francois and Louise, who both worked in a mill run by Francois. Their family life was loving but difficult. Many of Bernadette's siblings died in childhood, and she developed asthma. Economic hardship and an injury suffered by her father cost them the mill in 1854.

Years of poverty followed, during which Bernadette often had to live apart from her parents and work rather than attending school. In January 1858, she returned to her family, whose members were living in a cramped single room. Strongly committed to her faith, Bernadette made an effort to learn the Church's teachings despite her lack of formal education.

On February 11, 1858, Bernadette went to gather firewood with her sister and a friend. As she approached a grotto near a river, she saw a light coming from a spot near a rosebush. The light surrounded a lady who wore a white dress, a blue sash and held a rosary. Seeing the lady in white make the sign of the Cross, Bernadette knelt, took out her own rosary, and began to pray. When she finished praying, the lady motioned for her to approach. But too scared, she remained still, and the lady disappeared.

Her companions had seen nothing but Bernadette described the lady in white to them, demanding they tell no one. But the secret came out later that day. The next Sunday, Bernadette returned to the grotto, where she saw the lady again. The identity of the lady, however, would remain unknown for several weeks.

Some adults accompanied Bernadette on her third trip, though they did not see the vision she received. The lady asked Bernadette to return for two weeks. “She told me also,” Bernadette later wrote, “that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next.” A group of family members and others went with her to the cave the next day, but only Bernadette saw the lady and heard her words.

Over the next few days, the number of people in attendance at the cave swelled to more than 100. A parish priest, Father Peyramale, became concerned – as did the police. Bernadette was ordered by her parents to never go there again, but she went anyway, and on February 24, 250 people saw Bernadette break into tears, as she related that the lady asked for prayer and penitence for the conversion of sinners.

A larger crowd was there on February 25 and they were shocked to see Bernadette drinking from a muddy stream. The lady asked her to dig in the ground and drink from the spring she found there. This act revealed the stream that soon became a focal point for pilgrimages. Although it was muddy at first, the stream became increasingly clean. As the crowds continued to gather, this change was noticed, and a woman with a paralyzed arm came to the water hoping to be healed. Four years later, her case would be recognized as the first of many miraculous healings at Lourdes. Public interest continued, and Bernadette heard a recurring message from the lady: “Go, tell the priests to bring people here in procession and have a chapel built here.”

While others were quick to conclude that Bernadette was seeing the Virgin Mary, Bernadette did not claim to know the lady’s identity. As she conveyed the repeated message to Fr. Peyramale, the priest grew frustrated and told Bernadette to ask the lady her name. But when she did so, the lady smiled and remained silent. Her identity remained a mystery after the initial two-week period.

Three weeks later, on the Feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette visited the cave again. When she saw the lady, she kept asking to know her identity. Finally, the lady folded her hands, looked up and said: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette, devout but uneducated, did not know what these words meant. She related them to Fr. Peyramale, who was stunned and informed his bishop.

Bernadette saw the Blessed Virgin Mary two more times in 1858: on the Wednesday after Easter, and on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. On July 16, Bernadette went for the last time to the grotto where she said, "I have never seen her so beautiful before." In 1862, the local bishop declared the apparitions worthy of belief.

Bernadette left Lourdes in 1866 to join a religious order in central France, where she died after several years of illness in 1879 at the age of 35. By the time of her death, a basilica had been built and consecrated at the apparition site, under the leadership of Fr. Peyramale.