Bernadette Soubirous
1844–1879
Feast: February 18 (proper calendar of France)
You don't need a stage: what is entrusted to you, you do faithfully, even when no one is watching. That is Bernadette: the poorest, sickliest girl in Lourdes, her family crammed into a former prison. And it is to her, of all people, that the Mother of God appears in 1858, eighteen times. She is questioned again and again, and she withstands every interrogation, quiet, gentle, unshakable. Then, just as the whole world turns toward Lourdes, she disappears into the convent at Nevers, "I am a broom that is put back behind the door after use," as tradition remembers her saying. In 1933 the Church declares her a saint. Heaven chooses the little ones. So the question for you: could you receive something great, and then quietly step aside?
From her life
- desperately poor family living in a former prison
- the apparitions of 1858
- withstands every interrogation
- disappears into the convent at Nevers
- "I am a broom that is put back behind the door after use", as tradition has it
The bridge to tradition
Humility and devotion to Mary, Lourdes bears witness that heaven chooses the little ones.