SAINT BERNADETTE Carlie Kreutzer

OF
LOURDES
EARLY LIFE
 Bernadette was born into a very poor family
She was the oldest of ten children
Born in Lourdes, France on January 7, 1844
Bernadette was baptized on January 9 at Saint Pierre’s Parish
 As a young child, she was diagnosed with cholera and had to live the rest of her
life with extreme asthma.
 ENCOUNTERS WITH THE HOLY MOTHER
 When Bernadette was fourteen years old, she was sent to gather firewood with her
sister and her friend.
They passed a grotto (Massabielle) and she saw a beautiful lady appear above a
rose bush, wearing blue and white. The woman smiled and made the sign of the cross
with a rosary made out of ivory and gold.
 Bernadette continually saw the vision appear to her and told her to “drink the
water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb that grew there”. They next day
the grotto’s muddy waters were cleared and fresh water flowed.
 The vision later told her to build a church and when Bernadette asked who she was
she responded with “I am the Immaculate Conception”
BERNADETTE’S LATER LIFE
 Since Bernadette first caused the spring to flow fresh water, 69 cures have
been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and no one was able to explain
a cause for the cures
 Bernadette went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers
because she did not like all of the attention she was getting. She learned to read and
write there.
 She was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone in her right knee and was unable
to take part in convent life.
She died in the Saint Croix Infirmary of the Convent of Saint Gildard at the age of
35 on April 16, 1879, while praying the holy rosary
INDUCTION INTO SAINTHOOD
o 30 years after Bernadette was buried, two doctors and a sister of the community
exhumed her body. They said the rosary was oxidized but her body remained
incorrupt. The incorruption was cited as one of the miracles supporting her
canonization.
o Saint Bernadette is often depicted in prayer with a rosary or appearing to the Holy
Virgin.
o She was beatified in 1925 and canonized by Pope Piuis XI in December 1933
o Saint Bernadette is the patron saint of illness, people ridiculed for their piety,
poverty, and of Lourdes France.
SANCTUARY OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES
WORLD EVENTS IN BERNADETTE’S LIFETIME
 The Civil War
 A war between the north and south of the union in America
 Began in 1860 and lasted until 1865
 Started when southern states succeeded from the union after President Abraham Lincoln was elected.

Great Chicago Fire

 Started on October 8 and finally burned itself out on October 10.
Killed hundreds and destroyed about 2,000 acres in the central business
district.
Thousands of homes were destroyed, leaving 90,000 people homeless.
Supposedly started with a cow kicking over a lantern in a barn, igniting
some hay, causing the barn to go up in flames.