"I Am the Immaculate Conception": The Message of Lourdes

Bernadette, the oldest of four children, lived in Lourdes, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains in France. Her father had been financially ruined and the family lived in a small room in a building that was once the town jail. Here, in Bernadette's own words, is an account of how the apparitions began:

"The Thursday before Ash Wednesday (February 11, 1858) it was cold and the weather was threatening. After our dinner, our mother told us there was no more wood in the house and she was vexed. My sister Toinette and I, to please her, offered to go and pick up dry branches at the riverside. My mother said no, because the weather was bad and we might be in danger of falling into the Gave. Jeanne Abadie, our neighbor and friend, who was looking after her little brother in our house and who wanted to come with us, took her brother back to his house and returned the next moment telling us that she had leave to come with us. My mother still hesitated, but seeing that there were three of us, she let us go. We took first of all the road which leads to the cemetery, by the side of which wood shavings can sometimes be found. That day we found nothing there. We came down by the side which leads near the Gave and having arrived at the Pont Vieux we wondered if it would be best to go up or down the river. We decided to go down and taking the forest road we arrived at Merlasse. Then we went into Monsieur de la Fitte's field, by the mill of Savy."

"As soon as we had reached the end of this field, nearly opposite the grotto of Massabieille, we were stopped by the canal of the mill we had just passed. The current of this canal was not strong, for the mill was not working, but the water was cold and I for my part was afraid to go in. Jeanne Abadie and my sister, less timid than I, took their sabots in their hands and crossed the stream. However, when they were on the other side they called out that it was cold and bent down to rub their feet and warm them. All this increased my fear, and I thought that if I went into the water I should get an attack of asthma. So I asked Jeanne, who was bigger and stronger than I, to take me on her shoulders. 'I should think not!' she answered. 'If you won't come, stay where you are!'"

"After the others had picked up some pieces of wood under the grotto, they disappeared along the Gave. When I was alone, I threw some stones into the water to give me a foothold, but it was no use. So I had to make up my mind to take off my sabots and cross the canal as Jeanne and my sister had done."

"I had just begun to take off my first stocking when suddenly I heard a great noise like the sound of a storm. I looked to the right and to the left, under the trees of the river, but nothing moved; I thought I was mistaken. I went on taking off my shoes and stockings, when I heard a fresh noise like the first. Then I was frightened and stood straight up. I lost all power of speech and thought when, turning my head toward the grotto, I saw at one of the openings of the rock a bush—only one—moving as if it were very windy. Almost at the same time, there came out of the interior of the grotto a golden-colored cloud, and soon after a Lady, young and beautiful, exceedingly beautiful, the like of whom I had never seen before, came and placed herself at the entrance of the opening, above the rose bush. She looked at me immediately, smiled at me and signed to me to advance, as if she had been my mother. All fear had left me, but I seemed to know no longer where I was. I rubbed my eyes, I shut them, I opened them; but the Lady was still there continuing to smile at me and making me understand that I was not mistaken. Without thinking of what I was doing I took my Rosary in my hands and got down on my knees. The Lady made with her head a sign of approval and herself took into her hands a Rosary which hung on her right arm. When I attempted to begin the Rosary and tried to lift my hand to my forehead, my arm remained paralyzed, and it was only after the Lady had signed herself that I could do the same. The Lady left me to pray all alone; she passed the beads of her Rosary between her fingers but she said nothing; only at the end of each decade did she say the Gloria with me."

"When the recitation of the Rosary was finished, the Lady returned to the interior of the rock and the golden-colored cloud disappeared with her."

Bernadette described her experience to her sister Marie (Toinette), asking her to keep it to herself. But when Bernadette began to cry during evening prayers, Marie went ahead and told their mother all about the incident. Her mother said it was just an illusion and forbade Bernadette to go back to Massabieille. For the next few days she was firm in her refusal, but finally the two sisters and Jeanne persuaded her to let them return. On February 14, along with some friends they started off carrying with them a bottle of holy water. When they reached the grotto, Bernadette saw the Lady again and knelt down. She poured the holy water on the ground and this seemed to please the Lady. By now Bernadette had entered the state of ecstasy characteristic of most apparitions: her eyes were focused on a particular location (which seemed to be just empty space to the other observers), and she was entirely oblivious to the presence of her friends. At this time, Jeanne hurled a rock down the incline near the grotto into the river. This startled the children, who scattered in different directions, and their cries attracted the attention of a nearby miller and his family. The miller took Bernadette into his house. On being informed of the incident, Bernadette's mother arrived to pick her up and would have punished her severely but for the miller's intervention.

It seemed unlikely that Bernadette would ever again be allowed to go back to the grotto, but then a prominent local lady, Madame Milhet, and her seamstress, Antoinette Peyret, came to Bernadette and her mother and asked them if they might be able to go together to the grotto. The mother found it impossible to say no to two such influential ladies, and on the morning of February 18 the two of them went with Bernadette to the grotto. The ladies brought a blessed candle and a pen and paper with which they hoped to record the Lady's name during the apparition. When the Lady appeared to Bernadette, she appeared to have no objection to the presence of the two women but said it was not necessary when Bernadette gave her the pen and paper. The Lady told Bernadette she was to come another fifteen times and promised her happiness not in this world but the next. At the request of the two ladies, Bernadette's mother and aunt accompanied her on the next two visits on February 19 and 20. On the 20th, the Lady taught Bernadette a secret prayer, which she recited for the rest of her life.

On February 21, her sixth visit, Bernadette was accompanied by Dr. Pierre-Romaine Dozous, the town's most eminent doctor, who evaluated her physiological condition during the ecstasy and announced that there was nothing abnormal about it, no indication of "nervous excitement." Bernadette was asked to pray for sinners. By this time, large crowds were following Bernadette to the grotto and the local authorities were becoming concerned about safety hazards. Bernadette was separately interrogated by the imperial procurator, who said she was imagining things, and the chief of police, who said she was lying. The chief warned her that she would be imprisoned if she made any further visits to the grotto. Despite this threat she returned there the next day followed by two policemen. On this occasion, the Lady did not appear to her, and she was taunted and mocked by many of the locals. As if to reward her for her perseverance, on the next day, February 23, the Lady again came to her and gave her "three wonderful secrets" that have never been revealed. On February 24, she was given repeated injunctions of "Penitence," and on February 25 she was commanded to drink and bathe in the fountain. Since there was no fountain there, Bernadette started to dig up the gravel with her hands, and soon a small pool had formed, from which she drank and washed her face. The pool became a stream, and its ability to heal and cure became evident almost instantly when, shortly after this apparition, a man who was going blind recovered his sight after bathing his eyes in its waters and a lady's paralyzed hand was restored to normal use. On February 26 Bernadette was told to "kiss the ground in behalf of sinners," on February 27 she was asked to tell the clergy that they should build a chapel at the grotto, and on March 1 she was told that the people should come in a procession to this chapel.

Bernadette was more afraid of the parish priest, Abbé Peyramale, than of the civil authorities. When she fearfully told him of the Lady's requests, he was quite severe with her and said that he did not deal with strangers and that she, Bernadette, must first find out from the Lady who she was. On March 4, over twenty thousand people had gathered to watch Bernadette at the apparition site. Although Bernadette saw the Lady again (this was the fifteenth apparition), the crowds were clearly disappointed that they did not witness any kind of "sign and wonder." Abbé Peyramale had specified the sign he wanted: the blooming of a rose bush in winter. The Lady declined to comply with the Abbé's demand.

The next apparition was on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, and it was then that the Lady finally responded to Bernadette's request to reveal her identity. Her answer, which Bernadette did not quite comprehend, was "Que soy era Immaculado Conceptiou," "I am the Immaculate Conception." The crowds grew larger after this announcement and the authorities became even more concerned. Lourdes fell under the jurisdiction of the Baron Massy, the prefect of Tarbes, and the baron, who was quite annoyed by the entire phenomenon, asked three prominent physicians to examine Bernadette. Their diagnosis, like that of Dr. Dozous, was that she was physically and mentally sound.

On April 7, when Bernadette was in the state of ecstasy, she accidentally moved her right hand into the flame of the candle that she always held at the apparitions (before the ecstasy began she had been holding the hand near the flame to ward off the wind). Although her hand remained in the flame, she continued in her ecstasy for another fifteen minutes without showing any sign of pain and with no damage to her skin. When the apparition was over, however, and Dr. Dozous touched her hand with a lighted candle, she reacted with pain and surprise.

After this apparition, the civil authorities blocked public access to the grotto. Bernadette felt that since the Lady had both revealed her identity and appeared to her as many times as she promised there was no urgency about returning to the grotto. On July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, she received one more "invitation" to come to the grotto—and there saw the Lady for the last time in this world (the eighteenth apparition). With the end of the apparitions, Bernadette went to study at a hospice run by the Sisters of Nevers. Eventually, she resolved to join the Sisters of Nevers and left Lourdes for the last time on July 4, 1866. Always sickly, Bernadette died at the age of thirty-five on April 16, 1879. Miraculously, to this day, Bernadette's body like that of Sister Catherine Labouré, remains incorrupt and lies in the convent chapel in Nevers. She was canonized on December 8, 1933.

As for the spring which Bernadette uncovered under the direction of the Lady, it is now the source of nearly fifteen thousand gallons of water a day. Over five thousand cures have been attributed to the waters of Lourdes, of which the Church has rigorously investigated and validated just sixty-five. Nearly five million pilgrims visit Lourdes every year. A little-known and yet significant event, in this context, was the effect of the water on the son of the emperor of France, Napoleon III. In August 1858, the two-year-old prince imperial "contracted dangerous sunstroke and the threat of meningitis from it." The royal governess was instructed to bring water from Lourdes, which was then sprinkled on the child. The child was subsequently cured, and in October the emperor ordered the local officials to remove the barricades set up around the grotto.

After an investigation of nearly four years, the bishop of the Diocese of Tarbes (to which Lourdes belongs) declared on January 18, 1862: "We judge that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, really appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on February 11, 1858, and on subsequent days, eighteen times in all. The faithful are justified in believing this to be certain." There are now four churches in Lourdes, and the processions of the pilgrims (requested by the Lady) are a regular part of the ceremonies at this great shrine of healing.

Description of the Virgin

"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 along her robe. 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 shining like the two roses on her feet."

Messages

Bernadette: "She said to me, 'I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.'" (February 18, 1858)

Bernadette: "The Lady, looking away from me for a moment, directed her glance afar, above my head. Then, looking down upon me again, for I had asked her what had saddened her, she replied, 'Pray for the sinners.' I was very quickly reassured by the expression of goodness and sweetness which I saw return to her face, and immediately she disappeared." (February 21, 1858)

Bernadette: "Penitence... penitence... penitence!" (February 24, 1858)

Bernadette: "While I was in prayer, the Lady said to me in a serious but friendly voice, 'Go, drink and wash in the fountain.' As I did not know where this fountain was, and as I did not think the matter important, I went toward the Gave. The Lady called me back and signed to me with her finger to go under the grotto to the left; I obeyed but I did not see any water. Not knowing where to get it from, I scratched the earth and the water came. I let it get a little clear of the mud, then I drank and washed." (February 25, 1858)

The Virgin: "Go, and kiss the ground in penance for sinners." "Go and tell the priests to have a chapel built here." (February 27, 1858)

Bernadette (to Abbé Peyramale): "The Lady has ordered me to tell you that she wishes to have a chapel at Massabieille and now she adds 'I wish people to come here in procession.'" (March 2, 1858)