Bernadette Soubirous, born at Lourdes in 1844, of poor parents, was a young girl of weak and delicate health; she could neither read nor write; she knew no prayers but her Chaplet, and she could speak only the patois of the country. "On February 11th, 1858," says she, "my parents were in great perplexity for want of wood to cook the dinner. I put on my hood, and offered to go with my younger sister Marie and our friend, the little Jeanne Abadie, to pick up some dead branches." The three children repaired to the bank of the Gave, opposite the grotto of Masabielle; in which were collected the sand and branches of trees drifted there by the current. But to reach the grotto, it was necessary to wade through the shallow bed of the river. Marie and Jeanne took off their shoes without hesitation; Bernadette delayed and feared to cross, as she was suffering from a cold. Whilst thus deliberating, she was astonished by a rushing of wind, instantly repeated, though the trees near the river were motionless. One vine only was slightly agitated, an eglantine, which grew in the upper part of this natural grotto. This niche and the wild rose within reflected a most extraordinary brilliancy; a Lady of admirable beauty appeared in the niche, her feet resting on the eglantine, her arms gracefully bent, and her hands joined; with a sweet smile, she saluted the child. Bernadette's first emotion was one of fear; she instinctively grasped her chaplet, as if seeking defence in it, and she tried to raise her hand to make the sign of the cross, but her arm fell powerless and her terror increased. The Lady also had a Chaplet suspended from her left wrist; taking it in her right hand, she made a very distinct sign of the cross, and passed between her fingers the beads (white as drops of milk); but her lips did not move. She smiled upon the shepherdess, who, reassured from this moment, recovered the use of her arm, made the sign of the cross and recited the Chaplet. The little Bernadette remained on her knees nearly an hour, in ecstacy. At length, the Lady made her a sign to approach, but Bernadette did not move. Then the Lady, extending her hand, smiled, and, bowing as if bidding farewell, disappeared. Returned to herself, Bernadette thought of rejoining her companions, who, having seen nothing, were at a loss to understand her conduct. She entered the water, which she found, to her surprise, of a gentle warmth. On reaching home, she imparted the secret to her sister, and then to her mother, who did not credit it.
However, the child being tormented by an earnest desire to behold the apparition again, her parents granted permission for her return to the grotto with several companions; the same manifestation took place and the same ecstacy. On Thursday, February 18th, she again repaired to the grotto; the apparition was visible for the third time, and the Lady requested Bernadette to come there daily for a fortnight. Bernadette promised. "And I," replied the Lady, "promise to render you happy not in this world, but the next."
On the succeeding days, the young girl went to the grotto, accompanied by her parents and an ever increasing crowd. None of them saw or heard anything. The transfiguration of the countenance of Bernadette announced the presence of a supernatural being, who urged the child to pray for sinners.
On the sixth day of the fortnight, the august Lady revealed to Bernadette three secrets, forbidding her to communicate them to any one. She taught her a prayer, and charged her with a message. "You will go," said she, "and tell the priest that a chapel must be built here, and that the people must come here in procession."
Bernadette communicated this order to the curé, but he hesitated to believe the child, and told her to ask the Lady for a sign which might confirm her words, for example, to make the wild rose which winter has divested of its leaves, break forth into blossom, then the month of February.
The Blessed Virgin did not judge proper to grant the miracle, but she tried Bernadette's obedience, by commanding her to kiss the ground on several occasions, and to climb the rock on her knees, praying meantime for sinners. One day she enjoined upon her to go and drink at the fountain of the grotto, to wash therein, and to eat of a certain herb which grew in that place. Bernadette saw no fountain, and no one had ever heard of one in the grotto, yet on a sign from the Lady, the docile child dug the earth with her fingers, and discovered a muddy water which, notwithstanding her repugnance, she used as commanded.
At the end of several days, the little thread of muddy water had become a limpid and abundant spring, and what was still more marvelous, it wrought innumerable prodigies. On February 26th, by the use of this water, a man who had gone blind twenty years previous, by the explosion of a mine, recovered his sight, and on the last day of the fortnight, a child dying, or as was supposed, dead, regained life and health in the waters of this fountain.
We will not dwell here upon the persecutions directed against Bernadette by the magistrates, or upon the vexations besetting the pilgrims who flocked hither from all parts of the world. Every one has read these details in the work of M. Lasserre, who so ably depicts the dignity and firmness displayed in the affair by the parish priest, M. Peyramale.
The apparition of March 25th, has a special significance. Bernadette, on several occasions, inquired the Lady's name. At this question, the vision, on the day mentioned, unclasped her hands, the chaplet of golden chain and alabaster grains sliding on to her arm. She opened her arms and directed them towards the earth, as if to indicate that her virginal hands were filled with benedictions for the human race; then raising them towards the celestial country, whence descended on this day the divine messenger of the Annunciation, she clasped them with fervor, and looking towards heaven with an indescribable expression of gratitude, she pronounced these words: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Having said this, she disappeared, and the child found herself and the multitude in presence of a bare rock.