Bernadette Soubirous

Life events

1. Born — 1844

   Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was born on 7 January 1844 in Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France, the eldest of nine children of François Soubirous, a miller, and Louise Casteròt. She was baptized two days later at the parish church of St. Pierre's on 9 January, her parents' wedding anniversary.

2. Educated — 1857

   Soubirous attended the day school conducted by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Nevers in Lourdes. She spoke Occitan as her first language and studied French only after age 13; at the time of the apparitions she could read and write very little due to chronic illness.

3. Other — 1858

   Between 11 February and 16 July 1858, Soubirous reported eighteen visions at the grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, referring to the figure in Gascon Occitan as aquerò ('that'). During the sixteenth apparition on 25 March, the figure identified herself as 'the Immaculate Conception' (Que soy era immaculada councepciou).

4. Other — 1858

   During the ninth apparition on 25 February 1858, Soubirous reported that the figure directed her to drink and wash at a spring and eat the herb growing at the grotto as an act of penance; clear water flowed at the site the following day, later developed into the Lourdes spring.

5. Other — 1862

   On 18 February 1862, following a canonical investigation, the Diocese of Tarbes formally declared the Lourdes apparitions 'worthy of belief,' recognizing their Marian character as Our Lady of Lourdes.

6. Tonsured — 1866

   On 29 July 1866, Soubirous took the religious habit as a postulant alongside 42 other candidates and entered the Sisters of Charity of Nevers at Saint Gildard Convent in Nevers, receiving the religious name Marie-Bernarde. She spent the remainder of her life there, working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan.

7. Died — 1879

   Soubirous died on 16 April 1879 (Easter Wednesday) at age 35 at Saint Gildard Convent, Nevers, of tuberculosis of the lungs and bones compounded by the chronic asthma she had suffered since childhood. Her reported final words were: 'Blessed Mary, Mother of God, Pray for me.'

8. Other — 1933

   Pope Pius XI beatified Soubirous on 14 June 1925 and canonized her on 8 December 1933, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Her liturgical feast is observed on 16 April in most of the Catholic world, and on 18 February in France.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Soubirous's primary language was Occitan; she described the apparition using the Gascon word aquerò ('that') and had studied little French before age 13, speaking the language of the local Pyrenees population. (certain)
• At the time of the 1858 visions, the Soubirous family had fallen into such poverty that they lived in le cachot ('the dungeon'), a one-room basement in an abandoned jail, housed for free by a relative. (certain)
• When asked about the apparitions later in life, Soubirous replied: 'The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.' (likely)
• When exhumed on 22 September 1909, thirty years after death, Soubirous's body was reported incorrupt by the examining doctors and the bishop of Nevers; at the third exhumation in 1925 a wax mask was fitted to the face before public exposition. (likely)
• When shown the commissioned statue of the apparition by sculptor Joseph Fabisch, Soubirous objected that it was 'too big, too old,' as she had described the figure as a young girl resembling a twelve-year-old child. (likely)