St. Bernadette Soubirous is a highly popular and venerated saint in the Catholic hierarchy, commonly referred to as St. Bernadette of Lourdes. Bernadette was born into a poor family in Lourdes, France, and spent an uneventful, if impoverished, childhood. Then, when she was fourteen, she and a sister were gathering wood near a river when Bernadette espied a beautiful young woman, dressed in white, emerging from a nearby grotto. The lady did not have much to say that first day; she only prayed the rosary along with Bernadette. On subsequent visits, however, the beautiful lady told Bernadette that she was the “Immaculate Conceptionâ€. She also told the young girl to dig in the dirt (and water sprang forth), to instruct the local priests to erect a church on the spot, and to spread the word about the need for repentance in a sinful world. Bernadette stuck to her story for the few weeks of her visions; naturally, this caused great curiosity among the villagers, dismay on the part of law enforcers, and consternation on the part of the Church. Such attention was centered on the little town, especially on Bernadette, that she entered a convent and prepared to become a nun. Never in strong health, Bernadette suffered greatly from a respiratory ailment (probably asthma) and died at the age of thirty-five. Her fame and that of her village grew even stronger after her death. Today almost five million pilgrims visit the holy site of Our Lady of Lourdes in hope of cures from illnesses, and there are some documented cases of otherwise unexplainable “miraculous†recoveries. Bernadette was declared a saint in 1933. We just can’t help adding one amusing little side note: in the 1943 film, The Song of Bernadette, the lovely Jennifer Jones received an Oscar for her portrayal of Bernadette, while Linda Darnell, one of the most scandal-ridden B-movie actresses on the Hollywood scene, made an uncredited appearance as the Blessed Virgin. Oh, irony, thy name is everywhere….
