The Feast of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes is April 16. This year we won't get to celebrate the feast day as it falls upon a Sunday which, as a Solemnity of the Lord, takes precedence over a saint’s day. However, this Sunday is still the anniversary of Bernadette’s death in 1879 at the age of 35. Hence, here’s a personal reflection by a devotee of the young saint, Father Gordon Reigle, on why he will celebrate Saint Bernadette on Sunday. Father Reigle is the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and St. John Church & Student Center in East Lansing. He writes:
Traditionally, France has been known as the “Eldest Daughter” of the Catholic Church for its long Christian history. Think of the many French saints (e.g., St. Denis, St. Genevieve, St. Joan of Arc, St. Vincent de Paul), beautiful churches like Notre Dame & Sainte-Chapelle, and Catholic rulers throughout the ages like St. Clotilde and St. Louis IX. Even the pope resided in France for a time during the Avignon Papacy.
Then came the bloody French Revolution, Freemasonry, and an era of secularism hostile to the Catholic faith. Should we be surprised that the Blessed Mother wants France to return to its senses and again become a stronghold of the faith, honoring Christ her son? Since the French Revolution, we can count seven locally approved Marian apparitions in France: The Miraculous Medal (1830), LaSalette (1846), Lourdes (1858), Pontmain (1872), Herault (1873), Pellevoisin (1876), and Lille Bouchard (1947).
Of course, Lourdes is the most famous, but these apparitions are connected. We really need to back up and begin our story in 1830 in Paris. Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Laboure and gave her the image of a medal to be produced and distributed. By popular acclaim due to many conversions and graces received, this sacramental was named the Miraculous Medal. And what are the words on the outside of this medal? O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!
The Catholic Church had always believed that Our Lady was pure and full of grace (Luke 1:28), but the Church had yet to formulate an official teaching or Marian dogma in this regard. The Church proclaimed Our Lady as the Mother of God and defended her Perpetual Virginity in the early Church councils, but it took until the 13th century to arrive at a satisfactory explanation for the Immaculate Conception. The Franciscan Blessed Duns Scotus taught that Our Lady was preserved from all stain of Original Sin from the first moment of her existence by the foreseen merits of Christ, her son.
Now, all that was needed was a little push from Heaven to get this teaching to get proclaimed as the Church’s third Marian dogma, and the Miraculous Medal was that push. Within a quarter-century, Pope Pius IX decreed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. But that’s not the end of the story.
Four years later, in rural southwest France, a young peasant girl named Bernadette was gathering firewood down by the river Gave, when she encountered a beautiful woman praying the Holy Rosary. Bernadette had three initial encounters with the mysterious apparition, and then Our Lady asked the young peasant girl to return 15 more times, just like the Holy Rosary with its 15 decades (not counting the Luminous Mysteries which came in the 20th century).
In the end, Our Lady revealed a tiny healing spring of water which has yielded surprising cures to the pilgrims who flock to Lourdes each year. And Our Lady revealed her name: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Of course, Bernadette had no idea what that meant, so she ran and told the parish priest, who had been asking who this mysterious lady was. I can only imagine his reaction! The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception which was promulgated only four years previous was now confirmed. Poor Bernadette, who barely had any education, could not have fathomed or made up such a response.
If you’ve ever watched the movie, Song of Bernadette, you know that she lived out the rest of her short life as a nun in Nevers, France. Sadly, some of her fellow sisters made her life very difficult as they questioned why such an ordinary and uneducated peasant girl would be so favored as to receive an apparition of the Blessed Mother.
In the end, Bernadette died young and was vindicated. Her body lies incorrupt in the chapel of her convent in Nevers. And, although this seems odd to say of a person who died 144 years ago, she looks absolutely beautiful in death, as if she was merely sleeping.
The Shrine of Lourdes hosts thousands of pilgrims — many sick or infirm — each year from all around the world. They come to bathe in the icy mountain waters of the healing spring. But the healings are only a sign. The real message of Lourdes is for us to recover our Baptismal purity through confession and repentance.
Our Lady wants France and the whole world to return to the fold. The Immaculata wants this for all of her spiritual children. In this Easter Season of grace, as we celebrate St. Bernadette on Divine Mercy Sunday – April 16, let us draw ever closer to our Blessed Mother and allow her to guide us and perfect us in the spiritual life. St. Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us!
Fr. Gordon Reigle