Lourdes, in the south of France, is probably the most famous pilgrimage site in the Christian world. Every year thousands of pilgrims visit it, attracted by rumors about the healing properties and great spiritual power of water. Where did Lourdes get such a reputation? Why did the peasant girl, who soon became known as Saint Bernadette, receive several visions of the Blessed Virgin, which led to the construction of the tabernacle at Lourdes? Let's go to the very beginning of that rocky path, from which the miracles of healing began.
Lourdes is a city of paradoxes. The visitor expecting to see a village immersed in the grace of its glorious past in the middle of the picturesque Pyrenees mountains is overwhelmed by the spirit of bustling trade that reigns here. The hotels are overcrowded, all sorts of little things of Catholic cults are laid out in the shop windows, in the streets there is an incessant hum. And yet Lourdes remains one of the largest spiritual centers in Christendom.
The main paradox of Lourdes is precisely that of all possible places on earth, the Virgin Mary chose this drowsy village to spread her message. Why was Bernadette, an illiterate fourteen-year-old girl without a penny, suffering from asthma and tuberculosis, and completely meaningless in this world, served as her tool?
Why Lourdes? Indeed, even the origin of this city is very unclear. The original inhabitants were of a Celtic family, and there is evidence that Lourdes was inhabited as early as the Stone Age.
Like many medieval settlements, Lourdes grew up around a protected site. Until 1858 and Bernadette's visions, the left bank of the Po was uninhabited. Today the village is located on both banks of the Po, its original population is twenty-five thousand people, and more than a million come to the annual pilgrimage. These pilgrims receive tokens in memory of Lourdes, they scour the city, picking out rosary, medallions and other trinkets for themselves, their relatives and friends.
Today, the old quarter on the west bank is connected to a new bridge that joins the main street leading to the basilica, the Rosary Church and the grotto of healing water where the Blessed Virgin Mary told Bernadette Soubirous she should appear. Above the grotto, on a protruding part of the rock, stands a statue of the Virgin: the Basilica was added to the grotto in 1876, and the Church of the Rosary, just below and in front of it, was erected from 1884 to 1889. In 1907, Pope Pius X ordered that the celebration of the apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in Lourdes take place on February 11, which gave the grotto the final status of holiness.
But what was so extraordinary about the wonders of Lourdes? In part, this is a shade of a kind of challenge thrown down to all those of little faith who, absorbed in various pleasures and thirst for prosperity, established the spiritual climate in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. Believing in nothing, the intelligentsia of that time was committed to positivism, which taught, among other things, that miracles are impossible.
Who was Marie-Bernard Soubirou, the miller's daughter, to whom the Mother of God appeared and gave her her orders? Bernadette, the eldest child of François Soubirous and Louise (nee Castereau), was born on January 7, 1844 at the Mill of Pain, which is under the walls of the fortress. She was baptized in honor of her eldest maternal aunt. The matriarchy, inherited from distant Celtic times, continued to dominate the Pyrenees - Castero had position, money and influence.
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The girl's health was weak from birth. After suffering cholera in the Pyrenees in 1855, she developed chronic asthma. The winter of that year was even worse than the summer due to the fact that there was no one to harvest. Hunger was approaching.
My father was forced to look for odd jobs wherever he could. The mother was hired to do the laundry, clean the house and do seasonal work in the fields. Bernadette took care of the younger children, and when the mother herself stayed at home, she collected firewood, rags, bones and old iron.
Presumably, the girl had not heard anything about the Holy Trinity and about other Christian dogmas; by the time of her visions, it seems, she knew only "Our Father", "Theotokos Virgin rejoice", "Glory" and "Symbol of Faith" - that is, all the little that she had learned in her own home.
The only thing we know: on February 11, 1858, on Thursday, Bernadette, her sister Toinette and their friend Jeanne Abadi went from the Lourdes prison to the forest for firewood. The day was cold. Crossing Savi's mill stream, the other two girls immediately got tired and began to whimper. Bernadette, remaining on the other side, shivered from the cold and refused to enter the river, which was very shallow. Leaving her, the girls ran away. Bernadette eventually took off her stockings and walked across the stream, finding the water quite warm. Then, sitting on the rock, she put on her stockings again.
According to the earliest records of her words (May 28, 1861), the following happened: “I went a little further to see if I could go somewhere without taking off my shoes and stockings. Finding out that she could not, she returned back to the grotto to take them off, then I heard a noise, turned to the meadow and saw that the trees did not sway at all, continued to take off her stockings and again heard this noise, raised her head and looked at the grotto and saw a lady, dressed in white, she wore a white dress and a blue sash, and a yellow rose on each leg, the color of her rosary chain. When I saw this, I began to rub my eyes, I thought that everything seemed to me, put my hand in my pocket, found my rosary, I wanted to cross myself, but could not bring my hand to my forehead, she fell, then the vision crossed, then my hand trembled I tried to cross myself again and did it,I said a prayer on the rosary, the vision touched the rosary, but did not move my lips, and when I finished my prayer, the vision suddenly disappeared …"
This was the first of eighteen meetings that took place prior to mid-July.
Let's make a digression.
Ecstatic people are often insensitive to heat, pain, cold, noise, movement, and other external stimuli. What's more, they do not suffer burns, pricks or falls when in their trance. And thus, Bernadette's insensitivity to the cold of the mill stream, to heat and pain (in the so-called miracle with a candle on April 7), to sudden sounds and sudden movements (February 14) and to an increasing number of other people throughout the entire time of her visions - all this only proves her ecstatic, trance-like state and, perhaps, has to do with a miracle. And miraculous were the healings themselves, which followed after the key started.
The discovery of the holy spring in Lourdes is now part of world folklore. Thanks to Franz Werfel's novel Bernadette's Song and the Oscar-winning film of the same name, Saint Bernadette's story is now widely known.
Marie-Bernard Soubirous was fourteen years old when she received eighteen visits to Our Lady. When the rumor of her visions spread through the village, local children threw stones at her. The priest, Father Peyramal, suggested that all the visions were demonic delusion, and Bernadette's mother forbade her to leave the house. On her second visit to the grotto, Bernadette brought a vial of holy water, which the Mother of God commanded to spill on the ground, presumably at the very place where the holy spring later sounded. Then, hearing the incomprehensible sounds of falling stones, other children in fear rushed to the miller's house for help. He and his wife brought Bernadette, who had fallen into a trance, home.
Now the whole city is talking about it. Fortunately for Bernadette, one eminent resident, Antoinette Peiré, decided that the vision was to be the spirit of her late friend, Eliza Latapi, who was president of the Lourdes congregation of the Order of the Children of Mary. Together with her partner, Mademoiselle Millet, she convinced Bernadette's mother to let the girl go to the cave again. She brought candles with her, as the Holy Virgin ordered to Bernadette, and left them in the cave. Although the women themselves did not see or hear anything, they were very impressed by the fervor of the prayer of Bernadette, who had fallen into prostration. They came back to the village, glorifying her, and since then no one interfered with the girl's path.
At the fifth meeting, on February 21, 1858, the Mother of God taught Bernadette prayer, which she continued to read all her life, but whose words she did not reveal to anyone. During the sixth visit, the girl was told "Pray for the sinners." A physician, Dr. Dozu, examined Bernadette while she was in a trance. He noted that "her pulse was normal, breathing was not difficult, and there was nothing to indicate nervous excitement." This time, Bernadette was accompanied by several hundred people. Some came from the villages from the plains to look at the peasant girl for prayer. Pilgrimages began, which the Mother of God demanded. In truth, they began with children who came with Bernadette a second time in the hope of seeing the Ever-Blessed One themselves.
The mayor's office official, Monsieur Estrade, although he was considered an agnostic, was so shocked by the girl's story that he became her closest friend and wrote down her later stories word for word. However, the head of police, Giacome, decided to act harder. Once, when Bernadette was calmly returning home from vespers, she was stopped and escorted to his office.
It was at the police station that she first met Monsieur Estrade. He came to make sure that no one is violating her legal rights. After the usual questions, Giacome asked her to describe the scenes in the grotto. She complied with his request calmly, folding her hands in her lap, as she often did. The policeman tried to knock her over and catch her, pretending to hear exactly the opposite of what she was saying. After failing, Giacome suggested that Bernadette was simply trying to get the attention and respect of other children. Bernadette rejected this accusation as calmly as she answered questions. The head of police began to threaten that if she did not give up all her stupidity, he would have to put her in jail. Here Monsieur Estrade gently advised the girl to give her word not to come back to the grotto. Again she refused.
Fortunately, Bernadette's father found out about her detention and came to the police station. He gave his word to Monsieur Giacoma that no more trouble would arise, and Bernadette was released under his guarantee.
The girl nevertheless was determined to keep her promise to the Mother of God. But although she was walking the roundabout route, she was tracked down by the police. While she prayed on her knees, the police stood by respectfully, but as she finished, she was immediately asked if she had any visions.
“No, I didn't see anything this time,” she replied.
She was allowed to go home, to the whistle of the villagers, who made fun of the idea that, they say, the Blessed Virgin was frightened by the police and found herself a quieter place. The police said they hope she has learned this lesson. Bernadette truly learned that no matter how great someone's faith, she is not always rewarded with holy visions. Two days later, she returned and was honored with the message of the "three wonderful secrets." However, the girl vowed to keep them and never revealed them.
At the eighth visit she was told about repentance three times, and the next day she was given the legend "Drink water from the fountain and wash yourself in it." Bernadette was puzzled: Massabeil never had a source or a fountain. Nevertheless, she followed the command of the Mother of God and began to scratch the ground. At the sight of this spectacle, observers doubted. The skeptics began to laugh, confident that the girl had lost the remnants of her mind and that they were simply following the village idiot. But soon water came out of the ground. Bernadette drank from a muddy puddle and washed her face in it. Even the most faithful of the audience turned away from her, believing that they were deceived. But the next day, a spring poured into the place of a puddle, and water flowed over the rocks.
On her tenth visit, Bernadette was told to "kiss the ground for all sinners," which she immediately complied with. Many of those who gathered then followed her example. The following commands of the Mother of God were more difficult to fulfill. During the eleventh and twelfth visits to the cave, Bernadette was ordered to demand from local priests to rebuild a chapel by the grotto and organize pilgrimages. But how could she, a poor, weak and illiterate peasant woman, demand that the church build a chapel?
Nevertheless, Bernadette went to the Abbot Peyramal, whom she feared more than the chief of police, and informed him of the desire of the Mother of God. The priest at that moment was reading the missal in the garden and was not at all delighted with Bernadette's interference in his prayers. In a sharp form, he told the girl that the church does not build chapels according to the requirements of mysterious strangers. He said that the Lady must name herself, and if the Lady does not understand this, it means that she is an impostor or just a hallucination of Bernadette. Three days later, Bernadette returned to tell the priest that the Lady was demanding a procession to the source. This time the priest threw his missal at her.
When she arrived at the grotto on the fourth of March, not only thousands of ordinary people were waiting for her, but also soldiers and mounted police sent by the mayor and local commandant. When Bernadette appeared with a candle, twenty thousand people whispered in a muffled voice: “There she is! There she is! The disappointment of the crowd was inevitable. They came hoping to see and hear the Mother of God. Instead, they saw a little peasant woman on her knees, surrounded by a strange glow.
The sixteenth visit was on the day of the Annunciation. Monsieur Estrade, now a friend of Bernadette, was sitting with his sister when the excited girl broke into his house. She had just been in the cave and begged the Beautiful Lady to reveal her name, but she did not understand her answer words at all, although she heard them very clearly. She asked Estrada in her mountain dialect (half French, half Spanish): "Que soy era Immaculado Conception?" - "What is the Immaculate Conception?"
Estrade patiently explained to the girl the meaning of these words, but those who did not need clarification had already rushed to the grotto. Baron Mass, prefect of the department, was very annoyed by all this mess. He did not want any such miracles in his department and ordered that the restless child be examined by three famous doctors. They reported that Bernadette was physically and mentally completely healthy. The crowd, despite the large number of people, remained calm and organized themselves. The mayor and prefect believed that the number of people would decrease after Easter.
Maybe they would have been right if the miracle had not happened with the candle. Bernadette always brought a candle to the cave as the Beautiful Lady told her to. And during the seventeenth visit, the girl sat on her knees, already plunged into a trance. As if obeying some order, she stretched out her right hand and placed it in the very flame. And she continued to pray for at least a quarter of an hour, and the fire shone through her.
When she came out of her trance, Dr. Dozu examined her hand, but found no burn marks. He immediately took another candle and held it to Bernadette's hand. She shouted with pain: "You burned me!" - not understanding how someone she thought was her friend wanted to hurt her.
The mayor sent a protest to the prefect: the grotto becomes "a place of unauthorized public prayers" without the approval of either secular or spiritual authorities. Still hoping to get rid of this annoying obstacle, the prefect called on the bishop to put an end to the lawlessness. The bishop, however, believed that until the matter was resolved in one way or another, he should wait for the Lord to reveal the final truth to him.
The prefect decided to act independently. He dismantled the primitive altar and built a barricade around the grotto.
Now that Bernadette had been awarded the promised number of visions and the Beautiful Lady had revealed herself, the girl had no particular need to return to the cave. But after taking communion at the feast of Our Lady of the Carmel Mountain, she felt a familiar call. Accompanied by her aunt, she approached the grotto and found before it a group of several pious women. Bernadette knelt in the grass in front of the barricade. Here she was again embraced by a familiar transformation, and the girl was honored with the last visit to the Mother of God.
Numerous healings have already taken place at the spring, but one of them was especially remarkable. In September 1858, a certain Madame Broix visited the spring to get some water and take it to Paris. When she was noticed picking flowers near the barricade, she was immediately arrested. But then the woman fully disclosed her name, and it turned out that she was the wife of the famous Admiral Bruis and was the manager of the house of Emperor Louis Napoleon III and his wife, Empress Eugenie. In fact, she received the Empress's assignment to get water to heal the sick Infant, Louis, known as Lou-Lu.
When Madame Broix returned to Paris, the water was probably used to heal Lou-Lou. One can only guess how successful the course of such treatment was.
In fact, the visions of the peasant girl and her persistence were stronger than the local authorities. From that day onward, thousands of believers, especially the old and sick, rushed to the cave near Massabeil. Saint Bernadette spent the rest of her life in a monastery, devoting herself only to prayer. Once, asked why she no longer sees the Mother of God, Bernadette replied: “I was her brush. When I completed what was needed, She, like a good housewife, put me outside the door. And I'm glad to be here."
Healings have been going on here for many years.
Contrary to popular belief, miracles do not necessarily take place in Lourdes proper. They can happen in a grotto, in a church, in a hotel room, on a train on the way home, or even in a place very far from the source. A person may not pray while the healing is taking place. The case of Catherine LaPeyre demonstrates this.
The woman was dying of cancer of the tongue, neck and blood. During the operation, a quarter of her tongue was cut off, and she refused further surgical intervention. Since she could not go to Lourdes herself, she vowed to compose hymns to the Blessed Virgin and rinse her mouth with water from a spring every day. On the ninth day of prayers, the tumors disappeared and she was completely healthy. A small white scar on the tongue remained as a memory of the operation.
However, such astounding events should not distract us from the true meaning of the Lourdes miracle. The Mother of God did not say anything to Bernadette about healings. The saint herself, speaking of the blind man who received his sight, reminded us: it is much more important than the cured physical blindness - the healing of spiritual blindness. Bernadette saw herself as only a crude instrument and said: “If the Blessed Virgin wanted to choose someone else to teach than me, She would have done it; but She lifted me up like a pebble from under a block."
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