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BERNADETTE OF LOURDES
The Commission of Enquiry On 28th July 1858 Monseigneur Laurence, the Bishop of Tarbes, set up a Commission to make a complete and thorough inquiry into the events at Massabielle, which lasted three years. The Bishop announced its findings on 18th January 1862: “It is our judgment that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, did really appear to Bernadette Soubirous on 11th February 1858, and on subsequent days, eighteen times in all, in the Grotto of Massabielle, close to the town of Lourdes.”
Sister Marie-Bernarde Bernadette faced constant curiosity from outsiders and extremely poor health. She soon moved to the hospice run by the Sisters of Charity in Lourdes, where she remained for six years until she moved to the Convent of St Gildard and community of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers. She only referred to the apparitions when asked, saying: “I know nothing. I am good for nothing, useless.” Before leaving Lourdes on 4th July 1866 Bernadette was present at the inauguration of The Crypt, the “Chapel” requested by Our Lady. She bid farewell to her beloved Grotto, later saying: “The Grotto was my heaven; you will find me there at the foot of the rock.”
Within three months of arrival in Nevers she received the “Last Sacraments” on what was considered to be her death bed. At the same time she took her vows of simple profession, repeated publicly in October 1867. As Sister Marie-Bernarde she tried to live a life of obscurity and devotion to her tasks as a nun but in 1874 she became too ill for active duties, suffering from chronic asthma, constant chest pains, abscesses, a tumour on the knee and bone decay. Bernadette died on 16th April 1879, aged 35.
Thirty years later her body was exhumed in the cause of her beatification and was found to be in a state of perfect preservation: there was no decay. After re-burial her body was exhumed in 1913 and finally in 1925. Her body was placed in a glass casket and now rests in the chapel of the convent of St Gildard in Nevers. Pope Pius XI proclaimed Bernadette a Saint on 8th December 1933, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
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