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Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and
parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
This is the feast day of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. Born on January 7, 1844, her parents were very poor and she was the
first of nine children. As a toddler, Bernadette contracted cholera and
suffered extreme asthma. Unfortunately, she lived the rest of her life in poor
health.
On Thursday, February 11, 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette was
sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, when a very
beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle
(Tuta de Massavielha). The woman wore blue and white and smiled at Bernadette
before making the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold. Bernadette
fell to her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray. Bernadette later
described the woman as "a small young lady". Three days later,
Bernadette, her sister Marie, and other girls, returned to the grotto where
Bernadette immediately knelt, saying she could see "aquero" again.
On February 18, Bernadette said "the vision" asked her to
return to the grotto each day for a fortnight. With each visit, Bernadette saw
the Virgin Mary and the period of daily visions became known as "la
Quinzaine sacrée," meaning "holy fortnight."
When Bernadette began to visit the grotto, her parents were
embarrassed and attempted to stop her, but were unable to do so. On February
25, Bernadette claimed to have had a life-changing vision. The vision had told
her "to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the
herb that grew there" as an act of penance. The next day, the grotto's
muddy waters had been cleared and fresh clear water flowed. On March 2, at the
thirteenth of the apparitions, Bernadette told her family the lady said "a
chapel should be built and a procession formed."
During her sixteenth vision, which Bernadette claims to have
experienced for over an hour, Bernadette claimed she had asked the woman her
name, but her question was only met with a smile. Bernadette asked again, three
more times, and finally the woman said, "I am the Immaculate
Conception."
Though many townspeople believed she had indeed been seeing the Holy
Virgin, Bernadette's story created a division in her town. Many believed she
was telling the truth, while others believed she had a mental illness and
demanded she be put in a mental asylum. Some believed Bernadette's visions
meant she needed to pray for penance. Church authorities and the French
government rigorously interviewed the girl, and by 1862 they confirmed she
spoke truth. Since the time that Bernadette first caused the spring to produce
clean water, 69 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and
after what the Church claimed were "extremely rigorous scientific and
medical examinations," no one was able to explain what caused the cures.
The Lourdes Commission that initially examined Bernadette, ran an analysis on
the water but were only able to determine it contained a high mineral content.
Bernadette believed it was faith and prayer that was responsible for curing the
sick.
Bernadette asked the local priest to build a chapel at the site of
her visions and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major
Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. Many other chapels and churches have
been built around it.
Following the miracles and constructions, Bernadette decided she did
not like the attention she was getting and went to the hospice school run by
the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she was taught to read and write.
Though she considered joining the Carmelites, her health was too fragile. On
July 29, 1866, Bernadette took the religious habit of a postulant and joined
the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers. Her Mistress of Novices
was Sister Marie Therese Vauzou and the Mother Superior at the time named her
Marie-Bernarde, in honor of her grandmother.
Bernadette spent the rest of her life there working as an infirmary
assistant, and later a sacristan. People admired her humility and spirit of
sacrifice. Once a nun asked her if she had temptations of pride because she was
favored by the Blessed Mother. "How can I?" she answered quickly.
"The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant."
Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone in
her right knee and was unable to take part in convent life. She died in the
Sainte Croix (Holy Cross) Infirmary of the Convent of Saint-Gildard at the age
of 35 on April 16, 1879, while praying the holy rosary.
Even on her deathbed Bernadette suffered severe pain and, keeping
with the Virgin Mary's admonition of "Penance, Penance, Penance," she
proclaimed "all this is good for Heaven!" Bernadette's last words
were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me. A poor sinner, a poor
sinner."
The nuns of Saint-Gildard, with the support of the bishop of Nevers,
applied to the civil authorities for permission to bury Bernadette's body in a
small chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, which was within the confines of the
convent. Permission was granted on April 25, 1879, and on April 30, the local
Prefect pronounced his approval of the choice of the site for burial. On May
30, 1879, Bernadette's coffin was transferred to the crypt of the chapel of
Saint Joseph, where a very simple ceremony was held to commemorate the event.
Thirty years layer, on September 22, two doctors and a sister of the
community exhumed her body. They claimed the crucifix and rosary she carried
had been oxidized but her body remained incorrupt [unperished]. The
incorruption was cited as one of the miracles supporting her canonization. The
group washed and redressed Bernadette's body then buried it in a new double
casket. The Church exhumed her body again on April 3, 1919, and the doctor who
examined her said, "The body is practically mummified, covered with
patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts, which appear to be
calcium salts ... The skin has disappeared in some places, but it is still
present on most parts of the body."
In 1925, Bernadette's body was exhumed a third time. This time
relics were sent to Rome and an imprint of her face was molded, which was used
to create a wax mask to be placed on her body. There were also imprints of her
hands to be used for the presentation of her body, which was placed in a gold
and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the mother house in
Nevers.
In 1928, Doctor Comte published a report on Bernadette's exhumation,
where he wrote: "I would have liked to open the left side of the thorax to
take the ribs as relics and then remove the heart which I am certain must have
survived. However, as the trunk was slightly supported on the left arm, it
would have been rather difficult to try and get at the heart without doing too
much noticeable damage. As the Mother Superior had expressed a desire for the
Saint's heart to be kept together with the whole body, and as Monsignor the
Bishop did not insist, I gave up the idea of opening the left-hand side of the
thorax and contented myself with removing the two right ribs which were more
accessible. What struck me during this examination, of course, was the state of
perfect preservation of the skeleton, the fibrous tissues of the muscles (still
supple and firm), of the ligaments, and of the skin, and above all the totally
unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this
organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed
very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet, when it was
cut it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those
present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon."
Saint Bernadette is often depicted in prayer with a rosary or
appealing to the Holy Virgin. She was beatified in 1925 and canonized by Pope
Piuis XI in December 1933. Saint Bernadette is the patroness of illness, people
ridiculed for their piety, poverty, shepherds, shepherdesses, and Lourdes,
France.
(Extracted from Catholic.org)
