Gospel Matters: St Bernadette and the Miracles of Lourdes

By Dr Christine Wood, Director of the Office of Evangelisation & Catechesis

Catholic tradition has established May as the month of Mary, most likely because May is when spring is the loveliest in the northern hemisphere. This month provides an opportunity to reflect on one of the most extraordinary developments in Catholic history: the story of Bernadette of Lourdes.

St Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) is best known for the apparitions she received of the Virgin Mary in the small town of Lourdes, France, in 1858, at just 14 years of age. The beautiful “Lady” simply identified herself by saying, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

The doctrine of Mary’s conception without the stain of original sin was formally defined by Pope Pius IX a few years earlier in 1854. It was most unlikely that a poor, illiterate village girl like Bernadette would have heard the phrase “Immaculate Conception”, let alone understood it. So Mary’s revelation to her was quite extraordinary.

Among the unusual occurrences at Lourdes was “the Lady’s” instruction that Bernadette scrape the ground in the grotto and eat the bitter plants. Onlookers who didn’t see “the Lady” thought Bernadette was mad. But shortly afterwards, the hole filled with water, becoming a spring which has since become famous for miraculous cures.

Spontaneous healings, many of them miraculous, began during the months of the apparitions to Bernadette. The first healing miracle occurred in March 1858 when one Catherine Latapie’s paralysed fingers were restored after bathing them in the spring. After two years of enquiry, the local bishop declared the healing miraculous. 

Over the years, Lourdes became a pilgrimage centre, where people would come seeking spiritual and physical healing. The Office of Medical Observations was established there in 1883 to medically examine people who claimed cures. Since then, the office has received over 7,000 claims of healing, of which 70 have been officially recognised by the Church as miracles.

The most recently recognised miracle was the healing of Sr Bernadette Moriau in 2008, who was suffering from a degenerative disease which twisted her left foot backwards and caused agonising spinal and pelvic distortions. She published her story in a book entitled, My life is a Miracle.

Why did Mary appear to Bernadette at Lourdes, and why so many miracles? Perhaps, it was to counter the rise of atheistic materialism in Europe. Mary’s apparitions reoriented people to acknowledge that God not only exists but is also active in the world, and that he longs to heal us.

These Lourdes experiences and other remarkable miracles will be showcased in the exciting Miraculous Events exhibition, on display at the Waterside Pavilion, Hobart, from 15 to 26 June.