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The saints

St. Bernadette Soubirous

A poor, sickly girl of Lourdes who saw a Lady in a grotto, and never let it make her important.

Feast: 16 April (date from the Roman Martyrology; not on the universal calendar) · 1844 to 1879 · The modern era · Lourdes and Nevers, France

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Black-and-white photograph of St. Bernadette as a young woman in a headscarf and shawl.

abbé P. Bernadou, 1861. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Bernadette Soubirous

The grotto of Massabielle, Lourdes, 1858

Bernadette was the oldest child of a family so poor they lived in a former jail cell.1

At fourteen, gathering firewood by a grotto, she saw a young Lady dressed in white.1

Over eighteen visits, the Lady asked for prayer and penance and finally called herself the Immaculate Conception.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers her as the visionary of Lourdes.

01St. Bernadette Soubirous

Not believed

Officials, police and even her priest questioned her again and again, and she never changed her story.1

A spring she uncovered at the Lady’s request became the waters of Lourdes.1

02St. Bernadette Soubirous

A broom in a corner

She became a sister at Nevers, suffered years of illness, and said she was like a broom, put back in its corner after use.1

Live it this week

Tell the truth and let it be

Bernadette told what she saw and didn’t try to convince anyone. This week, if you’re doubted after telling the truth, say it once, calmly, and let it go.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Bernadette Soubirous”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.