Bernadette Soubirous

The Saint Bernadette Soubirous, or Maria Bernada Sobeirons in Occitan, ( born January 7, 1844 in Lourdes, † April 16, 1879 in Nevers on the Loire River ) was a French nun who as a girl in 1858 had several Marian apparitions. In the Roman Catholic Church Bernadette Soubirous is venerated as a saint. The town of Lourdes became one of Europe's most important pilgrimage sites.

Life

As the oldest daughter of the poor living miller François Soubirous (1807-1871) and his wife Louise (1825-1866), Lourdes ( a small town at the northern foot of the Pyrenees ) grew up, Bernadette moved already in early childhood until her death sustained asthma suffering. You will also have a general dystrophy attributed ( retardation of physical development ). As with normal children in their social conditions, they did not master the French language high, but said the locally customary Bigourdan. Soon, the family had the mill fell into economic difficulties, leave and move into an empty house, called " cachot ", which was formerly used as a local arrest. This house had them the cousin André Sajous gives.

On February 11, 1858 at 11 clock went Bernadette, her sister Antoinette and her friend Jeanne Abadie to near Massabielle ( Occitan massa VIELHA, old rock ') to collect wood beyond the Gave de Pau river. There Bernadette to have appeared to a woman in white above the cave in a small niche for the first time.

"I heard a noise like a gust of wind, I raised my eyes to the cave and saw a lady dressed in white, who was wearing a white dress, a blue veil, and on each foot a golden rose. "

After her first vision Bernadette said:

" She had a white dress, a blue belt and a golden rose in the color of her rosary on each foot. When I saw that, I rubbed my eyes, because I thought to deceive me ... "

The lady dressed in white is said to have asked for the third appearance by a further 15 meeting Bernadette. Furthermore, the lady is said to have said: "I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the other ". Bernadette told the local priest Peyramale of " Aquerò " of " that there "; this was decidedly skeptical and kept Bernadette crazy. He instructed them to ask the woman her name. At the 16th meeting, finally, the lady is on the question of who she was, with the words "Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou " ("I am the Immaculate Conception" ) have responded. When Bernadette told the priest what the woman had said, Peyramale was deeply saddened and shocked. Pope Pius IX. had proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary four years earlier. That Bernadette with their lack of education and although they had not been to the First Communion, might have heard of this dogma, is unlikely. Bernadette was that name so unknown that they are the words always repeated at running back. This convinced the priest, who then defended the phenomena. The apparitions - eleven in February, five in March, one in April and one in July - ended on 16 July 1858.

Bernadette came in 1866 in the monastery of Saint- Gildard the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, where she led a secluded and naturally modest life. Marie -Thérèse Vauzous their novice mistress and later mother superior - which had already been in school religion teacher and Bernadette not weighed - rejected the visions of Lourdes and opposed an incipient worship of Bernadette after its caused by bone tuberculosis death at the age of 35 years. Bernadette was never returned to the grotto of Massabielle the convent after her admission.

According to Bernadette's death

Her body was exhumed several times. In the investigation on September 22, 1909, he was described by the examining doctors Jourdan and David as follows: " The facial skin was on the bone, and the body was colored black brown, parchment-like rigid and sounded the stop hollow like cardboard. On the forearms you could still see the pattern of the veins. Hands and feet were waxen. ".

The Grisons coroner Walter Marty explains the log entries as follows: " This description is almost classical, especially the wood- cardboard -like tone. The fact that the pattern of the veins was still recognizable, explained by the fact that the subcutaneous fat is gone. Fat is liquid present in our cells and runs at rot from. The brown- black discoloration is found in all so-called septic corpses, it is caused by the breakdown of hemoglobin. Lined with lead coffins are known to prevent decomposition phenomena. "

Bernadette's body is one of approximately 100 so-called " intact corpses " of Catholic saints that are mentioned in the Anglo - American world "The Incorruptibles ". 1925, the body was on the occasion of her beatification placed in a glass coffin in the chapel of the monastery of Saint- Gildard in Nevers (today: Espace Bernadette Soubirous ) transferred, where he can be seen to this day. However, it covered his face and hands with wax masks, which were manufactured from casts and photographic recordings.

From Pius XI. it was on June 14, 1925 blessed on December 8, 1933 canonized ( the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception). Your feast day is April 16.

Reception

Franz Werfel wrote a novel about Bernadette, who gives a very vivid picture of her life and the development of Lourdes at a religious center. He had fled from Nazi Germany to Lourdes, where he had taken a vow that he will write the story of Bernadette, should he survive the persecution by the Nazis. Bayerischer Rundfunk produced in 1959 under the direction of Heinz -Günter strain according to Werfel's novel The Song of Bernadette as a radio play, edited by Fred from Hoerschelmann and Richard Miller, among others Solveig Thomas as Bernadette, Walter Richter as François Soubirous and Edith Schultze- Westrum as his wife Louise. The duration of the work is 84'50 minutes. Two other radio versions were each produced in two parts.

The film The Song of Bernadette 1943 with Jennifer Jones as Bernadette became a multi Oscars excellent worldwide success.