Lourdes Anniversary

THE JUBILEE year of the Lourdes apparitions began last year on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. One hundred and fifty years ago, and precisely from February 11, 1858 to April 16 of the same year, the Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, near the small town of Lourdes, France. In the course of the Jubilee year the town will host a series of celebrations attended by high ranking churchmen and statesmen, and even by Benedict XVI. The Pope’s pilgrimage will be of particular significance since it was the last place that John Paul II visited before his death. The anniversary will officially close on December 8, 2008.

“It is highly appropriate,” says Monsignor Franco Degrandi, an Italian priest who has dedicated his whole life to Lourdes, “to begin and end the Jubilee with that Feast which celebrates Our Lady’s unique privilege – her Immaculate Conception. This Feast was promoted by the Church to indicate that Jesus’ mother, in the first instance of her conception, and by a singular privilege and grace granted by God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved from all stain of Original Sin.”

With these words, Mgr. Franco Degrandi, an elderly man in his 70s, smiles radiantly. Fr. Degrandi is a member of OFTAL a non-profit association which organises pilgrimages to Lourdes for the disabled.

Spiritual miracles

Fr. Degrandi joined the organisation in 1950, when he was still studying for the priesthood. Now, 58 years on, he is still as enthusiastic as ever about helping the disabled at Lourdes. From 1982 to 2007, he was director of this organisation, which he now presides.

“Lourdes is inseparable from the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception,” says Monsignor Degrandi. “The visions took place in 1858, four years after Pope Pius IX had proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This Dogma has had a long and troubled history, partly because a number of highly authoritative theologians, including Saint Thomas Aquinas, had raised objections to it. Despite this, the Pope had no doubts, and went ahead with the proclamation. Four years later the Virgin Mary, by appearing at Lourdes, gave her imprimatur, as it were, on the Dogma. From the very first apparition Bernadette was always asking ‘The Lady’ who she was, but the apparition had always declined to answer. Finally, during the 16th encounter, she revealed her name, and proclaimed, “I am the Immaculate Conception.’”

One hundred and fifty years have elapsed since that time, and Lourdes has become the Marian shrine par excellence. It has been calculated that over 600 million people have visited the shrine since its foundation, many of them sick or ailing, as the shrine has always been seen as a “refuge and hope for the sick”. Thousands claim to have received some miraculous cure through contact with its waters, and beyond reckoning are those who say they have received ‘spiritual healing’ there.

“In my work for the disabled I have had personal proof that these ‘spiritual miracles’ take place continuously at Lourdes,” says Monsignor Degrandi. “So far I have accompanied about 800 disabled people to the shrine. Few of them found healing, but many experienced a ‘spiritual miracle’. They learned that through their sufferings they were participating in Our Lord’s Passion, and hence receiving the great grace of being numbered as members of His Mystical Body.

An illiterate girl

If we wish to understand what took place at Lourdes, it is important to bear in mind the utter humility and simplicity of the girl who received the revelations. 

Bernadette Soubirous was the daughter of François and Louise, two very generous but extremely unfortunate souls, who were, however, sustained by an unshakable faith.

François and Louise married on January 9, 1843. A year later, on January 7, 1844, their first born came into the world – a girl named Bernarde-Marie, commonly called Bernardette. The girl was baptised 2 days later – on her parent’s wedding anniversary.

The couple had inherited a mill from Louise’s father. However, not being business minded people, they were not able to claim their rightful due from their customers. They treated their debtors as part of the family, even offering them wine and snacks whenever they came to visit. Eventually, the couple lost everything, including their home, but they found a new house in the city in 1852.

In the meantime the family had grown, Louise had had another 5 children, three of whom died in infancy. In 1855 the Soubirous’ received a large inheritance, and for a while it seemed as if their misfortunes had come to an end. François invested the money on a new mill, and also went into livestock breeding. However, the investment soon proved to be ill-advised, and the family went broke again.

François returned to the city, where everyone now made fun of him. He rented two dismal rooms for his family and started working as a hired hand. Hard times, however, were upon France; a drought and a famine had struck the country. François was unable to find work; Louise was likewise unemployed, and they were unable to feed their children. Despite the ordeal, the family remained united. But the dire situation was taking its toll on François, who took to drinking. An ugly rumour then spread that they were alcoholics, and it became even harder for the couple to find work.

Abject poverty

Bernadette was forced to interrupt her education to go to work. The little she knew of religion had been transmitted to her from her mother. At the age of 13 she found work in an inn.

The girl was forced to do the lowest, meanest jobs, and some men there even attempted to dishonour her. She felt increasingly uncomfortable in this new environment and, after months spent in desolation and weeping, finally returned home.

Meanwhile, the family was still bankrupt, and could not pay the rent, so they had to move again. Fortunately, a distant relative, the owner of an abandoned decrepit jail, unfit for human habitation, offered them a room on the ground floor, just next to the toilets. The stench, squalor and filth of the place were unimaginable. The room, measuring 3.37m x 4.40m, with a single window, was to serve as bedroom, living room and kitchen for 5 people! Whenever Bernadette had an asthma attack, she would grip the iron bars of the window, only to breathe in the nauseating air from the toilets outside.

It is amazing that despite the increasing hardships the family always managed to sick together. Never once did an altercation occur, and neighbours claim that they were always heard praying together in the evenings.

One particularly moving episode occurred when François was accused of stealing from a mill he was working in. The poor man was handcuffed and sent to jail like a common criminal, leaving the family in even greater distress. However, as no proof could be brought against him, he was released a week later. But his reputation had been irreparably damaged, and for a long time the local community regarded him as a thief.

Turning point

It was in this setting that a dramatic turning point came for the Soubirous’. On the morning of the apparitions François, sick and unemployed, was lingering in bed. Louise had set the room in order, and around 11 lit a fire to cook a vegetable soup. As she realized they were without firewood Bernardette volunteered to go out and get some. As the climate was cold and rigid Louise objected, fearing for her daughter’s health, but Bernadette insisted, and finally went out with her sister Toinette. On the way a friend joined them, and they made their way along the Gave river to a grotto called Massabielle.

At a certain point Toinette and her friend decided to wade across the river, while Bernadette, fearing the icy-cold water, remained behind on the river bank.

Suddenly, she felt a strong wind, but saw that the branches on the trees were still. After a second gust of wind she turned to the grotto where, on the right side, she saw a small bush quivering. Then, from out of a dark crevice she was enveloped by a supernatural light. Within that light there appeared a young Lady of surpassing beauty, smiling and dressed in white. Bernadette was utterly amazed and frightened. She was having a hallucination, she thought, or she was being tricked by the devil. She took out her rosary crown and tried to sign herself, but found that her arm was paralysed. She tried repeatedly to raise her arm, still to no avail. Finally, when the Lady crossed herself she was able to do likewise.

Subsequent visions
 
After three days Bernadette returned to the grotto with some friends, bringing with them some holy water. The idea was to throw the holy water at the apparition. This way, if it was a devil, it would flee. When Bernadette did this, however, the beautiful Lady, instead of fleeing, drew closer and crossed herself.
The third apparition took place on February 18. This time Bernadette was with two women friends of the family. When the mysterious Lady appeared the girl gave her ink and paper and told her, “Please write what you want me to do.” But the Lady smiled and replied, “It is not necessary for me to write what I have to say. I ask that you do me the favour of coming for a fortnight. I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.” It was the first time the Lady spoke, and she expressed herself in the local dialect.

Meanwhile, word of the apparitions was spreading like wildfire. By the time of the fourth apparition more than 100 people were present. Even the police and the ecclesiastical authorities were beginning to take an interest.

Miracle of the spring

On February 25, the ninth apparition, a climax occurred. The police recorded a crowd of more than 350. Hoping to witness something of her ecstasy, the crowd waited with eagerness for Bernadette’s arrival. Unlike the fine weather of previous days, this was a cold, miserable rainy day. It was out of the cold misty dawn that Bernadette finally appeared. She was seen to remove her hood, put her candle aside, walk towards the Gave, then turn, go down on her knees and finally crawl on all fours to the back of the Grotto, towards the left of the rock.

This is how Bernadette describes the event: “The Lady told me that I should go and drink at the fountain and wash myself. Seeing no fountain I went to drink at the Gave. She said it was not there; she pointed with her finger that I was to go in under the rock. I went, and I found a puddle of water which was more like mud, and the quantity was so small that I could hardly gather a little in the hollow of my hand. Nevertheless I obeyed, and started scratching the ground; after doing that I was able to take some. The water was so dirty that three times I threw it away. The fourth time I was able to drink it. She made me eat grass growing in the same place where I had drunk, once only; I do not know why. Then the Vision disappeared and I went home.”

However, that night the little hole dug by Bernadette began to pour forth increasing quantities of water until it became a spring gushing forth 120,000 litres of water a day. Everyone was utterly amazed, but the clamour increased even more when certain sick people reported healings on contact with that water.

Lourdes was by now no longer a local affair. Journalist were beginning to arrive from all over France.

The Immaculate Conception

On March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette went to the grotto for the 16th encounter. Standing in front of a large crowd she recited her rosary, and the Lady appeared again to her. This time, however, the apparition revealed her name by proclaiming: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. This expression was, however, incomprehensible to the uneducated 14-year-old girl. Disappointed, Bernadette told her parish-priest, “She is not Our Lady, she is the Immaculate Conception”. By this expression the parish priest was immediately reminded of the Dogma which had been proclaimed only a few years before by the pope, and realised that something significant was taking place.

In the meantime the authorities were waging a kind of war against these events, and the press was trying to rubbish the whole affair, but people kept on coming in ever greater numbers. Bernadette was interrogated and even threatened by the police a number of times. A medical examination was performed on her with the attempt to discredit the whole affair as a form of psychological delusion. At a certain point the authorities declared the grotto off limits, and threatened to fine anyone found loitering in its proximity. However, Eugene Louis Jean Joseph (1856-79), son of Emperor Napoleon III, was then two years old and gravely ill. In his desperation, the Emperor had decided to send his agents to Lourdes to collect some of the water. When Eugene was miraculously healed the Emperor ordered that the ban be lifted, and to stop all persecution against Bernadette.

The ecclesiastical authorities also organised an examination, and after 4 year study the enquiring committee concluded that the apparitions were authentic: Bernadette has really seen the Virgin Mary. The girl, however continued to lead a modest life in absolute poverty.

Incorrupt body

In 1866 Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, and spent the rest of her brief life at the convent in Nevers. Her relations with fellow sisters and superiors were rather strained. She worked as an assistant in the infirmary, and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. She was frequently tormented by painful ailments, and she died early at the age of 35. The autopsy revealed that her body had been consumed by an impressive series of diseases, among which were a number of very painful cancers.

Her body was buried in a grave dug in the earth in a chapel of the convent garden. The body was exhumed on September 2, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause which had in the meantime got underway. They found that although the crucifix in her hand and the rosary had both oxidized, that her body appeared ‘incorrupt’ – preserved from decomposition. This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before burial in a new double casket.

The Church exhumed the corpse a second time on April 3, 1919. The body still appeared preserved, however, her face was slightly discolored, possibly due to the washing process of the first exhumation.

In 1925, the Church exhumed the body a third time. A precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. The remains were then placed in a gold and glass reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the motherhouse in Nevers. The site is visited by many pilgrims, and the body of Saint Bernadette to this day remains intact despite being nearly one hundred and thirty years old.

In the next issue Fr. Degrandi will outline some of the major miracles which have taken place so far at Lourdes, with compelling testimonies of people who have experienced extraordinary healing power at the Marian shrine.