Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes:

Memorial:
11 February

Back in 1858, on this date Bernadette Soubirous went with her sister and a friend to collect some firewood and bones in order to be able to buy some bread. The family was dirt poor. Bernadette was a sickly child as well. When she took off her shoes and stockings to wade through the water near the Cave of Massabielle, she saw a light in the grotto and a Lady, dressed all in white, apart from a blue belt fastened around her waist and golden yellow roses, one on each foot. Subsequently, Bernadette was told by the Lady to return to the Grotto over a period of two weeks.

News spread and Bernadette started a popular movement of followers and hecklers/disbelievers at the Grotto on specified dates and times to see her go into a religious ecstasy at the presence of the apparition. Bernadette received seventeen more visions, in the next five months, and was led to a spring of healing waters which soon became a focal point of pilgrimage, and continues to flow to this day.

As word spread, this water was given to medical patients of all kinds, and miracle cures, lacking medical explanations, were reported. Local officials in the government and church became increasingly concerned about the popular appeal of the Grotto they limited access to the site. Pilgrims still came…. In the process, Lourdes became a national issue in France, resulting in the intervention of emperor Napoleon III with an order to reopen the grotto.

On 18 January 1860, the local bishop finally declared that: The Virgin Mary did appear indeed to Bernadette Soubirous. The miraculous cures continue at Lourdes to this day. Ask any Metro North Railroad trackworker who visited there after his big settlement for the debilitating back injury he got on the job.

Eventually, Bernadette became a nun and took the name Sister Mary Bernard. She lived for years and eventually died in agony with trabecular tuberculosis (TB of the Bone), which began, in her leg. This story is done pretty well in the movie “The Song of Bernadette” I recommend it highly. Bernadette was canonized on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1925 her feast is April 16th.

Although famous for its cures there are really only 70 cases considered miraculous by the Church. That’s less than 1%. The latest cure declared in 2018. There is an association of medical practitioners called The Lourdes Medical Bureau (Association Médicale Internationale de Lourdes) based in Lourdes, France. It is an official organization within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, but is administered and run only by secu;ar medical professionals. Its major function is the medical investigation of apparent cures associated with the shrine of Lourdes. Any medical provider or nurse practicing in or visiting Lourdes may apply to become members of the Lourdes Medical Bureau. Members are given (and invited to wear) a small but distinctive badge displaying a red cross on a white background surmounted by the word Credo ("I believe"). However, members of any religious affiliation, or none are welcomed. I applied, and was conditionally accepted, but they said in order to get the badge I need to go to Lourdes and appear in person at the Medical Bureau…I want the badge, but I’m not sure it is worth the trip to France…..

At my home parish, Notre Dame in New Hyde Park, we are under the patronage of Our Lady of Lourdes. We have a very nice Grotto in replica of the Grotto in France, it was blessed by Bishop Sheen back in the day.