Birthday: January 7, 1844 (Capricorn)
Born In: Lourdes, France
Bernadette Soubirous
(French Saint Who Received Visions from the Virgin Mary in a Cave Near Lourdes)
Saint Bernadette, also known as Bernadette Soubirous, was a simple Christian girl who was posthumously venerated and later canonized a Saint of Catholic Church by Pope Pius X and XI respectively. Coming from a humble background, Bernadette’s life turned after she had Marian apparitions, of a small young lady who asked for a chapel to be built near the grotto of Massabielle. Between February 11, 1858 and July 16, 1858, she experienced eighteen visions. It was on the sixteenth vision that the lady identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. Though Bernadette’s vision met with scepticism early on, after a thorough investigation they were claimed to be true and worthy. Adhering to her vision, a chapel was built at the grotto, which eventually has become the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Marian shrine is one of the major pilgrimage sites for Christians across the globe. Bernadette in her later life became a nun and served at a hospice. She followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she lived at Lourdes, but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876
43
6
