The eighteen apparitions in Lourdes


On February 11th, 1858 Bernadette went to the woods in search of firewood. She left the Cachot with her sister Toinette and a friend known as Baloume. Her real name was Jeanne Abadie. At this stage Bernadette was 14 years old. They made their way across the river by the banks of a small stream. This stream entered the river at a natural grotto in Massabielle Rock. There was a pile of wood inside the Grotto. Immediately Toinette and Baloume took off their clogs and crossed the river. Bernadette did not want to get her feet wet. She asked the other two girls to help her across the river and they refused.

As she was taking off her clogs she heard a rushing sound. She described it as like a gush of wind. When she looked over towards the grotto she saw a "Lady in White". She seized her rosary out of fright and the lady immediately crossed herself. Bernadette began to pray. When the vision disappeared she ran after the other two girls. She questioned them as to whether they had seen anything. They replied that they had not. The two girls were interested in what Bernadette had seen and she denied she had seen anything. Eventually Bernadette told the others on the condition that they told no one else. As soon as Toinette got home she told her mother what had happened.





Louise immediately banned their daughters from returning to the Grotto in fear of more misfortune hitting the family. Shortly after this Bernadette mentioned what happened while in confession. Father Domain asked her permission to tell the parish priest, Father Peyramale, which he did. The Parish Priest thought it of no importance.


The Grotto at the time of the Apparitions



On February 14th, having obtained her father's permission, Bernadette returned to the Grotto. Some girls with her brought a flask of Holy Water. The Lady was still there. Again she smiled at Bernadette. Bernadette said "If you are from God, then stay; if not, go away". As the Lady stayed Bernadette started praying. Her friends were so worried about Bernadette that they ran to a local building, the Savy Mill, for help. Louise heard of this and she came running in order to banish Bernadette from the Grotto.

At this stage everyone in Lourdes had heard of this. There were various theories as to what was happening including the appearance of a ghost of a young girl who died around that time. More and more people started to accompany Bernadette to the Grotto every day. On February 18th Bernadette went to the Grotto and saw the Lady. As she had been told to do she asked her to write her name, she even offered pen and paper for that purpose. In response the Lady said "that is not necessary...Will you be so kind as to come here every day for a fortnight?...I promise you happiness, not in this world, but in the next".

In Lourdes the rumour started to gather force that Bernadette could see the Holy Virgin. The crowds grew at each apparition, it started at less than ten, then thirty, and, by the sixth apparition, more than one hundred people. That evening the Police Superintendent Jacomet gave Bernadette a rigourous interrogation. He justified this in the cause of public order.

In the interrogation the Superintendent said to Bernadette "So, you see the Holy Virgin, do you?". She replied "I never said I saw the Holy Virgin" "Oh, so you didn't see anything, then?" he replied. "Well, yes I did, I saw a little lady" was Bernadette's answer. Over the course of the rest of the interrogation Bernadette used the word Aquero, (which means that), to describe the apparition.

Having heard what Bernadette had to say Jacomet did not believe her. He tried to alter her story to confuse her but she corrected his mistakes each time. Eventually Jacomet asked Francois to ban her from returning to the Grotto. Bernadette insisted she would return as she had promised to do so to the Lady.

She returned on February 23rd, along with 150 onlookers. The following day, the eighth apparition there were three hundred in attendance. Bernadette made her way forward on her knees and then kissed the ground. She said that the Lady said to her "Penitence, Penitence, Penitence" and "Pray God for the conversion of sinners... go and kiss the ground in penitence for sinners".

During the Ninth Apparition (February 25th), Bernadette got up and made her way towards the River Gave. She stopped, turned around and went back to the left of the Grotto. There she dug a hole which filled with muddy water. Three times she tried to drink from it but it was too dirty. On the fourth try she managed to swallow some of the water. She then washed her face and fed a handful of grass into her mouth. At the sight of this strange behaviour the onlookers were appalled. However Bernadette justified her actions by saying that it was what Aquero told her to do. "Go and drink from the spring and wash yourself in it".

Following the occurrences that day Bernadette was summoned before the Imperial Prosecutor, Dutour. Again she stuck to her tale and refused to alter it. She promised that she would return to the Grotto, and on the 27th and 28th of February, did so. These were the Tenth and Eleventh Apparitions.

At the Grotto clear water had flowed continuously from the hole since Bernadette had dug it. On March 1st Catherine Latapie recovered the use of her paralysed hand after bathing it in water from the spring. The Twelfth Apparition took place the same day. The following day, after another apparition Bernadette went to see Monsieur le Cure or Father Peyramale, who was the Parish Priest.

She brought with her a message from the Lady - "Let the people come in procession and let a chapel be built here". However Father Peyramale did not believe in the Apparitions and told her to leave almost immediately. Bernadette persisted and returned to the Presbytery that evening. Father Peyramale and the curates listened to her at first but then sent her off with the instruction to "Ask the Lady her name".

The following day three thousand people were at the Grotto to witness the Apparition. This caused considerable alarm to the local police. That evening Bernadette again visited the Parish Priest saying "The Lady still wants her Chapel". He repeated his request for the Lady's name. Furthermore he instructed that Bernadette was to "make the rosebush at the Grotto blossom". At dawn on March 4th there were eight thousand people at the Grotto. Bernadette repeated all of the actions that had been seen before: she went forward on her knees, drank from the spring, washed herself and kissed the ground on behalf of sinners. The Lady had not said her name. Later a number of people went to the Cachot to see Bernadette. They wanted her to touch rosaries and offer her money. She refused claiming that it burned her.

At this stage the fortnight of the visions was over and Bernadette returned to school. The Grotto was constantly full of visitors and sightseers. It was lit by candles day and night. During the night of March 25th Bernadette felt she was being called. At Five in the morning she went to the Grotto. Three times she asked the Lady her name. All she got in reply was a smile. When she tried again Aquero clasped her hands together and said "Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou". This means "I am the Immaculate Conception". Bernadette immediately went to Father Peyramale and told him what Aquero had said. The priest replied "Do you know what this means?". Bernadette replied "No, but I kept saying the name to myself all the way here". The Parish Priest was shaken by this development, and he sent Bernadette home. How could Bernadette know of the dogma declared four years earlier by Pope Pius IX? He contacted Monsignor Laurence, bishop of Tarbes, immediately. That evening Bernadette discovered the meaning of the Lady's words.

On April 7th, some twelve days later, Bernadette went to the Grotto for the Seventeenth Apparition. During this time she did not notice the flame of a candle flicking at her fingers for almost ten minutes. There was a Doctor Dozous present. He was a sceptic but when he examined the girl's hand afterwards he could find no trace of a burn. He was one of the first to be converted in Lourdes.

Bernadette concentrated on her school works over the next while. She took her First Communion on June 3rd, 1858. At the Grotto Louis Bouriette, Blaisette Cazenave and Henri Busquet were all healed by contact with the spring water. The local authorities were worried about behaviour at the Grotto and boarded it up. On July 16th Bernadette went to the opposite bank of the River from the Grotto (the site of the new Saint Bernadette's Church) and met her Lady for the eighteenth and last time. "I never saw her look so lovely".