Marie Bernarde Soubirous: From the Life of a Saint
“To obey and to love! To suffer for Christ in silence is joy! To love truly and to give everything, also the pain!”
In Lourdes, Bernadette is always near the sick people with her message of suffering – which she lived in hope and joy. As she is near the pilgrim with the evidence of her life and with the message of the Immaculate Conception.
Who was Bernadette? She was the daughter of a miller who fell into poverty. A simple shepherd-girl, devoted to her nurse in Bartrès. A misunderstood, humiliated but obedient sister in the convent of Nevers. A girl, who consciously and generously dedicated her short life to suffering. But above all, Bernadette is the moving evidence and the message of the Immaculate for the people of all times.
On 7 th January 1844 she was born to the married couple Francois Soubirous and Louise, born Castèrot, in the mill of Boly. She was baptized in the parish-church St. Peter in Lourdes. Her was given the name Marie-Barnarde.
Bernadette was approximately 10 months old when – caused by a misadventure – the milk of her mother dried up and she could not nurse the child anymore. So, the child was given to the nurse Marie Lagües.
Two years later, Bernadette needed not to be suckled any longer and she returned to her parents. She stayed there till the 24 th June 1854: The day, on which Francois Soubirous finally left the Boly-Mill and the drama of poverty and suffering began that at last led to the former municipal prison.
In automn 1855, the Plague broke out in Lourdes. Bernadette was 11 years old and was seized with this illness. Her wounds were dressed as good as possible. By repeated rub-downs with straw, the rotten flesh was removed from the wounds and those were bandaged again. She recovered with the help of this extremely painful but effective treatment, but she got asthma that she kept the rest of her life. In addition, she was seized with bone tuberculosis at the legs. It was the asthma and the tuberculosis that caused her death at the age of 35 years.
Francois lived in the worst poverty. He had no permanent work, no home and he practically stood with his wife and the four children on the street. They moved into the “Cachot” and lived there in the humid and unhealthy cell of the former prison. Bernadette returned to her nurse Marie Lagües in Batrès. She needed help and was looking for someone who tended the sheep, who did the complete housework and who cared for the two years old little Jean. Life in Bartrès was in every respect difficult for Bernadette. In spite of severity and privation she tried to study the catechism to prepare herself for the First Communion. The yearning for her family caused Bernadette’s return to Lourdes.
On 11 th February 1858, at 11 h in the morning, Bernadette went with her younger sister Antoinette and her friend Jeanne Abadie to Massabielle for gathering some wood there. Outside the “Cachot” was the thick, humid fog which was so typical for Lourdes. Later, Bernadette described herself in front of the pope: “I heard a noise similar to a gust. I raised my eyes to the grotto and saw a lady, clad all in white. She wore a white dress, a veil which was also white, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot.”
This was the beginning of the visions and the unique mission of Bernadette. Lourdes became a place of pilgrimage, known in the whole world.
During the time from 11 th February till 16 th July 1858 happened the 18 apparitions. The most time, Mary just prayed together with Bernadette or let herself be looked at. Other times she spoke to her, gave her orders, but above all she passed her the message and the religious signification for Lourdes.
In 1860, Bernadette was again taken to a hospital because of a fresh asthma attack. There she stayed until her entry in the convent of Nevers in the year 1866. At that time, also the crypt in Lourdes was consecrated and thus the first request of the “Immaculate” was fullfilled: “It is my request that here a chapel should be built.” Before her entry as novice in Nevers she went to the grotto for the last time, secretly and in an nun’s dress. She never returned there again.
When she entered the convent Saint Gildard, she had difficulties to get accustomed to it, encountered contradictions and humiliations from all sides. In October 1867 she made her religious vow, together with 43 other novices. Each sister was bestowed with a task and a vocation. Bernadette stayed in Nevers because she was held for unsuitable and besides she was ill. She was charged with the task to help in the vestry and the embroidery.
On 28 th March 1878 she was ailed again by one of her numerous asthma attacks. Her condition worsened. First, she received the last sacraments, then the extreme unction. But this time, Bernadette recovered only for a short time, but she did not regain her health. She was laying on the death-bed. Further asthma attacks followed. At suggestion of the physician, she was bedded on a chair to ease her breathing. She died at 15 h on 16 th April 1879. The asthma and the tuberculosis at the leg eroded her slowly and killed her at the age with not more than 35 years.
Her whole life, her whole mission, her whole message she had once written on a piece of paper: “To obey and to love! To suffer for Christ in silence is joy! To love truly and to give everything, also the pain!”
On 8 th December 1933, Pope Pius XI canonized Bernadette as a saint. That day also became the Feast of the Immaculate. On the occasion of the examinations for the canonization, Bernadette’s body was found in an indecomposed condition. Nowadays, the body is covered with a fine wax layer and rests in a shrine out of bronze and glass in the chapel of the convent of Nevers.
In Lourdes, Bernadette is always near the sick people with her message of suffering – which she lived in hope and joy. As she is near the pilgrim with the evidence of her life and with the message of the Immaculate Conception.