Saint Bernadette Soubirous

feast day: April 16 (Feb. 18 in France)

about:
- born: 7 January 1844 (Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France)
- died: 16 April 1879 (aged 35) (Nevers, Nièvre, France)
- Marie Bernarde "Bernadette" Soubirous (Occitan: Bernadeta Sobirós; 7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879) was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes, France, and is venerated as a Christian mystic and Saint in the Catholic Church.
- is best known for the Marian apparitions of a "small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby garbage dump of the cave-grotto at Massabielle where apparitions are said to have occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858. She would later receive recognition when the lady who appeared to her identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.
- Despite initial skepticism from the Catholic Church, Soubirous's claims were eventually declared "worthy of belief" after a canonical investigation, and the Marian apparition is now known as Our Lady of Lourdes. Since her death, Soubirous's body has apparently remained internally incorrupt, but it is not without blemish; during her third exhumation in 1925, the firm of Pierre Imans made light wax coverings for her face and her hands due to the discoloration that her skin had undergone. These masks were placed on her face and hands before she was moved to her crystal reliquary in June 1925^.
- The Marian shrine at Lourdes (Midi-Pyrénées, France) went on to become a major pilgrimage site, attracting over five million pilgrims of all denominations each year.
- On December 8, 1933, Pope Pius XI declared Bernadette Soubirous a Saint of the Catholic Church. Her feast-day was fixed for February 18, the day her Lady promised to make her happy, not in this life, but in the next. The Faithful however give her two more feast-days—April 16, the day of her death, and February 11—the day her Lady stepped from Heaven into her heart.


links/ sources:
- "Bernadette Soubirous" (Wikipedia):
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernadette_Soubirous
- "St. Bernadette Soubirous" (Catholic Online):
   http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1757
- "Bernadette Soubirous" (Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes):
   http://en.lourdes-france.org/deepen/bernadette-soubirous
-  "Notre-Dame de Lourdes" (Catholic Encyclopedia):
   http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm

Our Lady of Lourdes, France

Lourdes, France

Lourdes, France

feast day: February 11

patron of: bodily ills

about:
- a Marian apparition in Lourdes, France
- 11 February 1858: first apparition of our "Lady" to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the cave of Massabielle while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar apparitions of the alleged "Lady" were reported on seventeen occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place. Bernadette Soubirous was later canonized as a Saint, and Roman Catholics and some Protestants believe her apparitions have been validated by the overwhelming popularity and testament of healings claimed to have taken place at the Lourdes water spring.
- shrine: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, France

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NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF LOURDES
source: http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/lourdes.htm 

Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception." A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.  

By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favors, and already many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and physical. We come, therefore, with the most unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain for us, O loving Mother, the granting of our request.   
(state your request)
 
Through gratitude for your favors, we will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that we may one day share your glory.
 
Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your divine son while upon earth. You have the same influence now in Heaven. Pray for us; obtain for us from your Divine Son our special requests if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
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links/ sources:
- "Our Lady of Lourdes" (source: Wikipedia):
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Lourdes
- "Lourdes Apparitions" (source: Wikipedia):
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes_apparitions
- "Our Lady of Lourdes" (source:  American Catholic):
   http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1288
- "Notre-Dame de Lourdes" (source: Catholic Encyclopedia):
   http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm
- "Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes" (source: EWTN):
   http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/lourdes.htm
- "Lourdes: 150 Years of God's Healing Care" by Father John Lochran ("a priest who served as a former chaplain at Lourdes...") (source: American Catholic):
   http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Feb2008/Feature1.asp
- "A little history of the apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes" by Linda O'Brien, FTI (posted February 10, 2007) (source: Catholic Exchange):
   http://catholicexchange.com/a-little-history-of-the-apparition-of-our-lady-at-lourdes
- "The Song of Bernadette (film)" (source: Wikipedia):
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Bernadette_%28film%29
- "The Song of Bernadette 1 of 2" (old film) (source: YouTube):
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGtUt7a8Rz0
- "Pope's resignation coincides with Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes" by Giorgio Bernardelli (posted 02/11/2013) (source: Vatican Insider):
   http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/papa-el-papa-pope-22136/

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two days prior to Pope Benedict's resignation, i somehow searched for Pope Benedict's images/photos for some strange unknown reason and purpose...got surprised when he resigned as pope...

Saint Bernadette Soubirous