Our Patron Saint

St. Bernadette Soubirous was a poor, uneducated, peasant girl, who lived in the small milling town of Lourdes, France. On February 11, 1858, when she was 14, Bernadette enjoyed the first of many visits from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared to her as she gathered firewood with her sister and a friend. The message of Lourdes was a simple one: prayer and penitence. In one of her appearances, the apparition identified herself by saying, "Tell them I am the Immaculate Conception."
Soon thousands of people crowded the meadow overlooking the grotto where the Virgin Mary appeared.

The parish priest saw to it that Bernadette received enough education in the faith to celebrate her First Holy Communion and arranged for her to join the quiet convent of St. Gildard in Nevers, France.  There she continued her education and after taking vows she served the ill and infirm. Bernadette never returned to Lourdes.  When asked about the many favors the Blessed Mother had blessed her with, she quipped, “What do you think of me? Don’t I realize that if the Blessed Virgin chose me it was because I was the most ignorant?  If she had found anyone more ignorant than myself she would have chosen her”.  Many were endeared to Bernadette because of her humility, kindness, and sense of humor.  She died on April 16, 1879, at age 35, her last months filled with great suffering. Bernadette was a simple human being with a deep faith in God--a saint within our grasp. She was recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church when she was canonized in 1933.