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 Apparition of the Holy Virgin at Lourdes St. Bernadette is on £5 and £100 232-238 (1958) At age 14 Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) witnessed the first of her 18 visions of the Blessed Mother, visions of dazzling light and a white figure which she encountered while searching for firewood at the Massabielle Grotto at Lourdes. She was instructed to return to the spot of the visions for two weeks. The lady in white instructed that a chapel be constructed on the site and that Bernadette dig a hole from which water flowed continually thereafter. During the sixteenth vision, the lady in white stated, I am the Immaculate Conception. After initial skepticism, the visions were confirmed as legitimate in 1862. Many ill persons were cured by visits to the site and the water of an ever-flowing stream was considered a means to a cure from illness, although Bernadette stated it was faith and prayer and not water than provided cures. She joined the Sisters of Charity at Nevers (France) where she worked as a sacristan and also in the infirmary. She died of tuberculosis in 1879 and was canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI. Lourdes, a village in the foothills of the Pyrenees, accommodates 5 million pilgrims annually. Article Links: • Thomas Crimando,“Lourdes” : Vatican Notes, Vol. 32, No. 4 pp. 8-10 (1984) • Greg Pirozzi,“Postal History Perspective” : Vatican Notes, Vol. 53, No. 5 pp. 5-6 (2005) • Thomas Lera,“The Grotto of Lourdes Sesquicentennial” : Vatican Notes, Vol. 57, No. 340 pp. 6-10 (2008) |
