Who is st bernadette?

Question

who is she, whats her story??? I found this small article about how she is still in perfect condition after being dead for over 200 years. thats so amazing

Answer 1

According to The Oxford Dictionary of Saints:

"Bernadette  (1844–79), visionary of Lourdes and later nun. She was the daughter of François Soubirous, a miller, and was the oldest of six children, who for various reasons lived in acute poverty. At the age of fourteen, in 1858, she experienced in the space of six months a series of eighteen visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the rock of Massabielle, Lourdes. The Virgin described herself as ‘The Immaculate Conception’, ordered the building of a church, and told Bernadette to drink from a spring, which from that time until the present day produces 27,000 gallons of water a week. The content of the visions was extremely simple: they were principally concerned with the need for prayer and penance. The vast pilgrimage movement to Lourdes which developed from them is the greatest in modern Europe.

Bernadette was an undersized ailing child who suffered from asthma; her intellectual equipment was simple, and some witnesses thought her stupid. But her veracity, courage, and complete disinterestedness are beyond dispute. She was subjected to a series of searching interrogations both by the clergy and by minor state officials; from all these she emerged with her story unshaken. But she suffered considerably from publicity and curiosity; eventually in 1866 she joined the Sisters of Notre-Dame of Nevers, where she spent the rest of her life. She died at the age of thirty-five after much illness heroically borne. She was completely cut off from the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage centre and was not present at its culmination, the consecration of the basilica in 1876. The only ‘extraordinary’ months in her life were those of the apparitions; before and after, her life was humdrum in the extreme.

She was canonized in 1933, not because she saw visions and experienced trances, but because of her total commitment in simplicity, integrity, and trust. For these qualities in her balanced, though limited personality, she stands almost alone among Marian visionaries of recent times. Feast: 16 April , but often in France on 18 February ."

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Answer 2

St. Bernadette Soubirous lived in Lourdes France, & came from a peasant family.

One day, when she was out with friends, she went off by herself, & saw the Blessed Virgin Mary standing in a grotto, so she started praying the Holy Rosary with her.

This happened on several occasions, & at one point she  asked her who she was(for she really didn't know that it was the Mother Of God), & Mary replied, "I am the Immaculate Conception," meaning that she Conceived without the stain of original sin.

On another occasion Mary asked Bernadette to scrape the earth which she did, & water sprang forth. This spring runs to this very day, & countless people travel around the world to Lourdes France, to get cured of what ever ales them(be it some sort of disability or disease).

Originally, people did not believe Bernadette when she said that Mary had spoken to her.

She eventually joined the Convent to become a nun.

Answer 3

Bernadette was a peasant girl who was visited (quite a few times) by Our Lady. It was made into a film, an old black & white one, which is still one of my favs! Do some further research you'll enjoy it !!

All this occurred in a place called Lourdes - many make pilgrimages there ... part of the story is where Mary tells Bernadette to go to the spring, there was no spring & Mary made a spring appear ... The springs waters are still flowing & are believed to have healing properties.

Answer 4

She's meant to have seen apparitions of Mary in Lourdes in the 1850s.

Answer 5

Wasn't she in "The Jerk?"