February 11 is observed by the Catholic Church as the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. The feast commemorates the 18 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a 14 year old French girl, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, in 1858.
The apparitions began on February 11 and concluded on July 16 of the same year in the small town of Lourdes in southern France. After a careful investigation lasting four years, the local bishop declared the events worthy of belief in 1862.
These events took place only a few years after the Church proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. The apparitions transformed Lourdes into a major place of pilgrimage. Since that time, millions of people have visited the shrine seeking spiritual renewal and physical healing. Many pilgrims have reported cures after praying at the grotto and using the water from a spring that Saint Bernadette was directed to uncover. Since 1862, Church authorities have officially recognized 69 miraculous healings at Lourdes.
Saint Bernadette herself is honored with a liturgical memorial on February 18 in France and Canada and on April 16 in other parts of the world. She was born in January 1844 to Francois and Louise Soubirous, who worked at a mill owned by her father. Although her family was loving, they faced great hardship. Several of her siblings died young, and Bernadette suffered from asthma. Financial difficulties and an injury to her father led to the loss of their mill in 1854.
The family endured years of poverty. Bernadette often had to live away from her parents and work instead of attending school. In January 1858 she returned to her family, who were living in a single cramped room. Despite her lack of formal education, she was deeply devoted to her faith and made strong efforts to learn the teachings of the Church.
On February 11, 1858, Bernadette went with her sister and a friend to gather firewood near a grotto by the river. There she saw a bright light near a rosebush. Within the light stood a lady dressed in white and holding a rosary. When the lady made the sign of the Cross, Bernadette knelt and began to pray the rosary. At the end of the prayer, the lady invited her to come closer, but Bernadette remained where she was. The vision then disappeared.
Her companions saw nothing. Although Bernadette asked them to keep the event secret, news quickly spread. She returned to the grotto on the following Sunday and again saw the lady, whose identity was still unknown.
On February 18, during her third visit, some adults accompanied her, though only Bernadette saw the vision. The lady asked her to return for two weeks and told her that she would not promise happiness in this world, but in the next. As the days passed, crowds gathered at the grotto. On February 24, in the presence of about 250 people, Bernadette wept as she heard the message: “Penance. Penance. Penance. Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground for the conversion of sinners.”
The next day, observers were surprised to see Bernadette drinking from a muddy stream and eating wild plants. She later explained that the lady had instructed her to drink from the water and perform acts of penance. What appeared strange to onlookers was, for Bernadette, an act of obedience.
Soon the muddy ground gave way to a clear spring. As news spread, a woman with a paralyzed arm bathed it in the water and later reported healing. Four years afterward, her cure was recognized as the first miracle officially acknowledged at Lourdes.
The lady repeatedly asked Bernadette to tell the priests to organize processions and to build a chapel at the site. Many believed the lady to be the Virgin Mary, but Bernadette herself did not claim to know who she was. At the request of the parish priest, Father Peyramale, she asked the lady her name. For a time, the lady only smiled and did not answer.
Finally, on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, the lady revealed her identity, saying, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette did not understand the meaning of the phrase but faithfully repeated it to Father Peyramale, who immediately recognized its significance and informed the bishop.
Bernadette saw the Blessed Virgin two more times that year, once after Easter and again on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1862, the bishop formally approved the apparitions.
In 1866, Saint Bernadette left Lourdes to join a religious community in central France. She endured years of illness and died in 1879. By the time of her death, a basilica had already been built at the site of the apparitions, fulfilling the request made during those extraordinary events.