Of all the people associated with Lourdes, none is more central, or more humanly compelling, than the girl who first saw the vision. Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, known as Bernadette, was born in Lourdes on 7 January 1844 into a family of millers who had fallen on desperate times. By the year of the visions (1858), the family was living in a single room in the old Cachot, a former prison given to them in charity. She was 14 years old, illiterate in French, chronically ill with asthma, and one of six children.

The Visions

On 11 February 1858, Bernadette was gathering firewood near the Grotto of Massabielle when she heard a sound like rushing wind and saw a young woman in white standing in a niche in the rock. The figure wore a white dress, blue sash, and a white veil with a yellow rose on each foot and rosary beads over her right arm. Bernadette fell to her knees and began to pray her rosary. The experience repeated 17 more times, the last on 16 July 1858. During the third apparition, the Lady revealed the existence of a spring; during the sixteenth, she gave her name: "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Investigations and Pressure

Bernadette faced enormous pressure from civil and ecclesiastical authorities who suspected fraud or delusion. She was interrogated by police, magistrates, doctors and priests, always returning the same simple, unwavering account. Those who investigated her noted a striking quality: she was completely consistent under questioning, showed no signs of fabrication, and received no material benefit from her claims. The local Commissioner of Police, Louis Jacomet, subjected her to his most rigorous interrogation and reported, reluctantly, that he could find no reason to doubt her sincerity.

Later Life at Nevers

After the visions ended, Bernadette received a basic education from the Sisters of Charity and Notre-Dame in Lourdes, then entered their religious congregation at Nevers in 1866. She made her religious vows in 1867 and remained at the convent for the rest of her life, a life of increasing physical suffering. She suffered from tuberculosis of the bone in the knee and lungs, and spent her final years in severe pain. Throughout, she was notable for her humility, her dark humour and her insistence that "the Virgin used me as a broom, and when the work is done, put me back behind the door."

Death and Canonisation

Bernadette died on 16 April 1879 at the age of 35, having barely left Nevers in 13 years. She was beatified in 1925 by Pope Pius XI and canonised on 8 December 1933. When her body was exhumed three times for the canonisation process (1909, 1919, 1925), it was found to be incorrupt, perfectly preserved, without any sign of decomposition. Her body is enshrined today in a glass reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Gildard at the convent in Nevers, where it can be venerated. A day trip from Lourdes to Nevers by train is possible and deeply moving.

Visiting Bernadette's Lourdes

In Lourdes, several sites connected to Bernadette's life are open to visitors: the Cachot (the single room where the family lived), the Boly Mill (where she was born), the parish church of Saint-Pierre (where she was baptised) and the hospice school. Our guided tours of "Bernadette's Lourdes" cover all of these in a half-day programme.