Lourdes apparitions
Soubirous described the lady as wearing a white veil and a blue girdle; she had a golden rose on each foot and held a rosary of pearls.
After initial skepticism from the local clergy, these claims were eventually declared to be worthy of belief by the Catholic Church after a canonical investigation.
"[2] On 18 January 1862, the local bishop declared: "The Virgin Mary did appear indeed to Bernadette Soubirous.
On Thursday, 11 February 1858, a week before Lent would begin on Ash Wednesday, 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous was out gathering firewood with her sister Toinette and a friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes.
There, she reportedly had the first of 18 visions of what she termed "a small young lady", not in French but in the regional Occitan: uo petito damizelo, standing in a niche in the rock.
Because their mother had suspected the children were lying, both girls received a beating, and Soubirous was forbidden to return to the grotto again.
[2] Troubled by the notion that the apparition might represent an evil spirit, Soubirous used the holy water as a test.
Pious villagers Jeanne-Marie Milhet and Antoinette Peyret, on hearing Soubirous' description of the apparition, thought it was the returning spirit of one of their friends, who had died a few months before.
According to tradition, revenants rarely spoke, but communicated their messages in writing, and so Milhet and Peyret furnished Soubirous with paper, a pen, and an inkpot to take with her, in case the apparition should make use of them.
(Occitan: Boulet aoue ra gracia de bié aci penden quinze dias?
; French: Voulez-vous me faire la grâce de venir ici pendant quinze jours?).
It would be very unusual for anyone to adopt this formal form of address when speaking to a penniless, working-class peasant girl such as Bernadette.
Soon a large number of people followed her on her daily journey, some out of curiosity and others who firmly believed that they were witnessing a miracle.
Soubirous reported later that the lady had taught her a prayer, which she said every day of her life, but never wrote down or repeated to anyone.
By this time, the news was spreading to other towns, and many people assumed that Soubirous's lady was the Virgin Mary.
Jean-Baptiste Estrade (a tax inspector), Duffo (a court official), and the officers from the garrison were present.
She gave an account of these events to local physician Dr. Pierre Romaine Dozous, who began to collect information on healings at the spring.
Peyramale had ordered the priests to have nothing to do with the grotto, for it was the general practice of the clergy to discourage religious visionaries.
Previously, Father Peyramale had told Soubirous that the requests for the procession and chapel could not be fulfilled unless and until the lady's name was known.
She repeated to me several times that I was to tell the priests they were to build a Chapel there, and I was to go to the fountain to wash, and that I was to pray for sinners.
Dr. Pierre Romaine Dozous, the town physician, originally watched the apparitions from a skeptical viewpoint.
She was on her knees saying with fervent devotion the prayers of her Rosary which she held in her left hand while in her right was a large blessed candle, alight.
The child was just beginning to make the usual ascent on her knees when suddenly she stopped and, her right hand joining her left, the flame of the big candle passed between the fingers of the latter.
Astonished at this strange fact, I forbade anyone there to interfere, and taking my watch in my hand, I studied the phenomenon attentively for a quarter of an hour.
At the end of this time Bernadette, still in her ecstasy, advanced to the upper part of the Grotto, separating her hands.
[18]On 8 June 1858, the mayor of Lourdes barricaded the grotto and stationed guards to prevent public access.
[19] Soubirous received no further apparitions after the 18th appearance (on 16 July 1858), and she did not feel any desire to visit the grotto afterwards.
