Bernadette Soubirous

Bernadette Soubirous was born on 7 January 1844 in Lourdes, at the foot of the Pyrenees in southwestern France, the eldest child of the miller François Soubirous and Louise Casterot. Baptized two days later at the parish church of Saint-Pierre, she grew up in extreme poverty. After hard times forced the family into a single damp room—an abandoned jail called the cachot—she remained small in stature, scarred by childhood cholera, and afflicted for life with severe asthma. She spoke Occitan, learned little French, and could scarcely read or write because of frequent illness, yet her heart was already turned toward the Mother of God.

On 11 February 1858, while gathering firewood near the grotto of Massabielle with her sister Toinette and a friend, the fourteen-year-old Bernadette heard a rushing wind and saw a dazzling light and a white figure in the niche. She called the vision simply "aquerò"—"that one"—and later "the Lady" or "the Beautiful Lady." Between 11 February and 16 July she received eighteen apparitions. The Lady asked her to return each day for a fortnight, to pray for sinners, to do penance, to drink and wash at a spring that Bernadette herself uncovered in the muddy ground, and to have a chapel built and processions held. On 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, after Bernadette had thrice asked her name, the Lady answered in the local tongue: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Bernadette, who did not yet understand the theological title defined four years earlier, repeated the words faithfully. On 7 April witnesses saw her hand remain unburned for minutes in the flame of a candle while she was in ecstasy.

Civil and ecclesiastical authorities subjected the unlettered girl to relentless interrogations, suspecting imposture or madness. Nothing shook her simple, consistent testimony. Crowds began to throng the grotto; a spring of clear water flowed where she had dug, and reports of healings multiplied. In 1862 the Church declared the apparitions worthy of belief. Bernadette never claimed personal glory. She said the Virgin had used her "as a broom to remove the dust; when the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again."

Disliking the attention that surrounded her, she sought the hidden life. On the evening of 7 July 1866 she entered the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers at Saint-Gildard, taking the religious name Marie-Bernard. There she served as infirmary assistant and later as sacristan, embroidering altar linens with quiet care. Asthma, tuberculosis of the lungs, and a painful bone tumor in the knee gradually confined her to bed. She accepted every suffering as penance, repeating that "all this is good for Heaven." On 16 April 1879, Easter Wednesday, at the age of thirty-five, while praying the Rosary, she died with the words "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me."

Her body, found remarkably preserved at successive exhumations, rests in the convent chapel at Nevers. Pope Pius XI beatified her in 1925 and canonized her on 8 December 1933, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, born from her obedience, draws millions of pilgrims each year. Bernadette is honored as protectress of field workers and shepherds.

May Saint Bernadette obtain for us the grace of humble fidelity, that we too may live every moment loving God and serving the suffering.

VISIT TO THE PARISH OF ST. BERNADETTE SOUBIROUS

ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II

Sunday, December 16, 1990

To the Residents of the Neighborhood

In the afternoon, John Paul II makes a pastoral visit to the parish of St. Bernadette Soubirous at Tiburtino Sud. Upon his arrival, the Pope is welcomed, among others, by Cardinal Vicar Ugo Poletti, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Northern Sector, Monsignor Salvatore Boccaccio, and the parish priest, Father Carlo Lombardi. After stopping to greet the many people gathered outside the church and in the courtyard, the Holy Father listens to the words of welcome addressed to him by the parish priest, to which he responds as follows.

I cordially greet the parish of St. Bernadette and the neighborhood. I thank your parish priest for the words of welcome addressed to me at the beginning. Today the Sunday liturgy invites us to joy: "Rejoice because the Lord is near." I would like to congratulate you, your civil community and your Christian, parish community, for everything you have accomplished during these past 15 years. To congratulate means to express my joy because the Lord is near. It is precisely with this closeness of the Lord that you have built this parish reality, this church, this environment and above all this community, because the Lord wants to be surrounded by his friends, his brothers: he comes among us as one of us, he is born in Bethlehem. We already say Merry Christmas to each other today while awaiting the night of Bethlehem. The Lord comes among us to raise us to a new dignity, a dignity that is more than human, because it is the dignity of the children of God.

Finding myself here before your Church, among you gathered in such great numbers, I would like to wish this closeness of the Lord to everyone: to each of you, to individuals, to families, to your environments, to your entire parish community. And I wish you a Merry Christmas with this profound meaning of the presence of the Son of God among you, among all of us. I greet this part of the Church of Rome as bishop, thanking the Cardinal Vicar and the Auxiliary Bishop of this your sector for everything they have done in my name, together with your parish priest and his assistant. I thank all of you and wish you a good continuation. With Christmas, one always looks toward the new year. Therefore, I wish you this good continuation of the coming year in the name of the Lord, and in the name of the Lord I bless all of you present here and all the members of this parish community.

To the Children

A veritable "roar" welcomes John Paul II's entry into the parish theater where the children of the parish of St. Bernadette are gathered. The "Christmas" atmosphere of the meeting is made visible by dozens of drawings, executed with various techniques, which cover the walls of the hall. The little ones have depicted scenes of the Nativity, Marian images, symbols of peace and brotherhood. On the stage where the Pope takes his place, a large nativity scene has been set up with life-sized figures. John Paul II lingers for a long time among the children, who greet him with a song accompanied by festive gestures. These are the words addressed to them by the Holy Father.

Dearest children, boys and girls, when I entered this room, seeing you sitting like this, I thought: you are sitting on the ground like the shepherds in Bethlehem. It is certainly a little warmer here; that night in Bethlehem it was colder. The shepherds were sitting around the fire: here among you there are "scouts" who know how one sits around the fire, even in the evening, in the night. These shepherds did not think about what would arrive, they did not think that that night would bring them such an announcement. At a certain moment they were illuminated with light and also with the words addressed to them, angelic words, words from heaven. These words announced the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem. And the shepherds immediately felt invited to go, to walk toward the grotto of Bethlehem, where they would find the newborn child, God made man, incarnate: the Word who became flesh.

Now, why did I think that? Because that typical depiction came to mind which portrays the shepherds sitting, lying down, illuminated. You too are awaiting that angelic announcement, the announcement that comes to us through the Church, through your parish, through catechesis. This announcement that was first given to the shepherds of Bethlehem is always repeated, it is proclaimed anew to new generations of Christians and also of non-Christians. This great announcement, this great truth is that God became man to save man, He was born as the savior of the world. This announcement is given to us to believe, to accept, to see with the eyes of faith the divine reality which is a reality of salvation, a reality of grace, of eternal life, which points out to us the path to undertake and to continue in this life.

I make this comparison between the shepherds and your parish where the announcement of good, the announcement of the birth of God made man, made flesh, made one of us, is continuously transmitted to new generations. Just as it had been transmitted to your parents, now it is transmitted to you through your parents and through the parish, your priests, your masters, teachers, catechists, above all, nuns: all those who teach you the good news of Jesus Christ.

I wish you to behave like these shepherds, who accepted this announcement with their hearts and immediately set out on their way toward the light. I wish you to do the same, to listen to this announcement, this good news, to listen to it not only with your ears but with your heart, and to set out on your way toward this light. I wish you to walk with this light through your years. Now you are children, still small; then you will become boys and girls, then youths, adults. Walk in the light of this announcement in the years of your life, because this angelic announcement of Bethlehem opens the way for us toward happiness in God, toward eternal life. I thank you for the warm welcome and for the song you sang. I thank all your teachers, catechists, for the work they do, committing themselves to the teaching of religion, to catechesis, to preparation for the sacraments and thus showing you the road to Bethlehem, the road to eternal life. My blessing goes to all those present, to your parents, to the adults. Merry Christmas.

To the Elderly

With the large group of the neighborhood Senior Center, John Paul II meets in the gymnasium of the parish Oratory, at the end of the Eucharistic celebration. The welcome given to him is particularly festive and joyous. The President of the Center addresses a brief greeting to the Pope at the beginning and before concluding expresses to him the unease of all the elderly people regarding the precariousness of their accommodation and the hope that soon, thanks also to the allocation provided by the City Council of Rome for the construction of a Center in Colli Aniene, the reality of old age in the neighborhood may find greater attention and more adequate reception facilities. To his words John Paul II responds as follows.

You call yourselves elderly, but I am of your same age... According to the years you are elderly, but in spirit you are still young. I wish you to maintain this youthful, joyous spirit, as I immediately noticed upon entering this environment, where I found joy. I wish you to maintain a joyous spirit, and I wish this for you especially as Christmas approaches, which for all of us, even for the most elderly, is the feast of youth, of our childhood: we all find ourselves children before the God-Child, before the God-Man. Behold, I wish you a Merry Christmas, I also wish that your dreams and your desires, which your president spoke of, may be fulfilled. The Cardinal Vicar knows well the concrete situations of the diocese and also of the city of Rome. Thank you for this warm welcome. I feel so happy and so satisfied to have come to visit my peers.

To the Pastoral Council

“We are the Church.” It is starting from this awareness that the faithful of the parish of Saint Bernadette Soubirous have built, in 15 years of life, an active and lively community within a complex reality such as that of the Colli Aniene neighborhood. This explicit recognition is expressed by John Paul II to the members of the Pastoral Council, during the meeting that takes place in a room of the Oratory. The Pope then turns to the faithful present with these words.

Already last Wednesday, meeting the parish priest, I was able to enter, spiritually and intellectually, into the reality of the parish of St. Bernadette Soubirous, your parish. And today I was able to see with my own eyes and hear with my ears what this parish is. Above all, the parish priest told me one thing, and it is an extraordinary thing, I would say wonderful: everything you have done in a rather short time, almost from scratch, has grown the neighborhood and has grown the parish at the same time. And for this I would like to congratulate you, especially this Pastoral Council, because it expresses in a synthesized way what is somewhat the secret of your success. This secret consists in the fact that you have embodied the reality of the Church. The Church perhaps, in past times, was seen a bit as the hierarchy, as the Pastors, the priests, their responsibilities. The laity were seen rather as a passive Church, a Church that listens. Instead, the Council has left us a vision of the Church that is not so divided. The Church is “us”. I think the secret of the birth of the parish consists in the fact that you have understood this: “us” we are the Church, “us” we are this community, “us” we are this part of the Church of Rome. This is very important because it carries within itself all the theology of the Church, indeed all the theology of the incarnation. Jesus Son of God came into the world to create a new “us” between himself, Son of God made man through the work of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and all humanity, entire humanity, together with all those who will receive him, who will listen to him, who will willingly realize this “us” which is the Church, together with him.

The depth of the approaching Christmas feast explains the mystery of the Church, but it also explains the reality, the success of your parish. It has understood its togetherness, its “us” with Jesus Christ, trying to move forward and self-realize as a Christian and human community, for the good of all, of the whole neighborhood, of your very dear city of Rome. I thank you for this work, together with your parish priest, the priests and your parish, and once again I congratulate you. Merry Christmas to everyone, to your families, to your loved ones.

To the youth

A Christmas projected into the dramas and anxieties of the contemporary world through the experiences of youths and adults of our time: this is the meaning of the theatrical performance offered to the Pope by the young people of the parish of Saint Bernadette during the meeting that takes place in the church. The search for love as the ultimate meaning of the existence of every man is the common thread of the multi-voiced play performed by a small group of young people. Subsequently, some of those present address brief greetings to the Pope on behalf of all the youth reality of the parish. These are the words addressed by the Pope to the young people.

Many times I meet young people when visiting the parishes of Rome, as well as when visiting other cities in Italy and those of various countries and continents. I always meet young people; this is a fixed moment of every visit. And what have I observed? I have observed that young people, at least in the majority of cases, do not merely wait to hear what the Pope will say, but want to be listened to, they want to express themselves. This also happened tonight in your parish dedicated to Saint Bernadette Soubirous. I am very grateful to you because it is much easier to speak after having listened to a testimony. This testimony of yours was above all about love, a testimony that is certainly fundamental in the context of every human person and especially of every young person. The central problem of human life is love. The central problem also of the relationship between man and God is love. We know that love, charity, is the principal commandment that encompasses all the others. Saint Augustine said: "Love and do what you will." Therefore, one must truly emphasize this centrality of love in human life and in the Gospel.

We are approaching Christmas. What would I like to wish you, dearest young people, at this moment, during this visit? I would like to wish you above all to meet that Bridegroom who is to be born as a small child, man, and at the same time the Son of God. He is the principal bearer of this gift of love for us all. I wish you to meet this Bridegroom as the wise virgins spoken of in the Gospel parable met him. I wish you to meet this Bridegroom, to learn from Him what love is, what its true dimension is, what its authentic meaning is, what its depth is, and what responsibilities it brings with it. To learn love: by learning love, almost everything is learned. He who knows how to love with an authentic, deep, true, responsible love, knows everything. He knows the Gospel and knows the secret of human destiny, of human vocation. He knows much about God Himself, perhaps not everything, because God is unfathomable. God is love. This brief response is my gratitude for your evocative words, and it is then my wish for the Christmas holidays, for the New Year, to all of you and to your friends, peers, to all your families, and to this entire parish dedicated to a young person. Bernadette was young, she was a girl at the time she met the Virgin in Lourdes.