The account of the apparitions of Our Lady in Lourdes

THE FIVE APPARITIONS OF FEBRUARY 1858

Lourdes, Thursday, February 11th 1858, first apparition

It was about noon. The Angelus was ringing in every village bell tower in France. Bernadette, who was taking off her first stocking to cross the river, heard a gust of wind around her. Rising quickly, she thought it was a whirlwind and instinctively turned around. To her surprise, the poplars lining the Gave remained completely calm. No breeze, even a light one, stirred their peaceful branches.

– “I made a mistake surely,” she said to herself.

And still thinking about that noise, she didn’t know what to believe. She began to take off her shoes again. At that moment the impetuous roll of that unknown wind was heard again. Bernadette raised her head, looked in front of her and wanted to let out a loud cry, but it was choked in her throat. She shuddered with all her limbs, and, overcome, dazzled, crushed as it were by what she saw before her, she collapsed on herself, bent over, as it were, entirely, and fell on both knees.

Above the Grotto, in a rustic excavation formed by the rock, stood, in the bosom of a superhuman light, a woman of incomparable splendour. The ineffable glow that floated around her did not cloud or hurt the eyes like the glare of the sun. On the contrary, this halo, bright as a bundle of rays and peaceful as the deep shadow, invincibly attracted the eye. However, nothing nebulous, or vaporous in the Apparition itself. It had not the fading shapes of a fantastic vision; it was a living reality, a human body, which the eye judged palpable like the flesh of us all, and which differed from an ordinary person only by its halo and by its divine beauty.

She was of average height. She seemed very young, around 16 years old, and in her features, one could nevertheless glimpse the four ages of human life: The innocent candour of the Child, the absolute purity of the Virgin, the tender gravity of the highest of Motherhood, a superior Wisdom to that of all the centuries accumulated, summed up and blended.

The clothes, of an unknown fabric, were as white as the immaculate snow of the mountains.
The dress, long and dragging, the dress with its modest folds, showed the feet, which rested on the rock and lightly trod the branch of the rosebush.
On each of these feet, the mystic rose, gold in colour, was in full bloom.
On the front, a blue belt, like the sky, knotted whose pants descended in two long bands almost touching the feet. At the back, enveloping the shoulders and upper arms in its amplitude, a white veil, fixed around the head, descended to the bottom of the dress.
A rosary, the grains of which were as white as drops of milk, the chain being golden, hung between the hands, joined fervently.

The silence of the apparition and Bernadette’s rosary

The beads of the rosary slipped one after the other between the fingers. However, the lips of the Queen of virgins remained motionless. Instead of praying the rosary, she was perhaps listening in her own heart to the eternal echo of the Angelic Salutation and the immense murmur of invocations coming from earth.

This marvellous but silent apparition gazed at Bernadette, who was standing at her knees.

The child, in her first stupor, had instinctively put her hand on her rosary; and, holding it in her fingers, she wanted to make the sign of the Cross and raise her hand to her forehead. But her shivering was such that she had not the strength to raise her arm; she fell powerlessly to her knees.

The look and the smile of the incomparable Virgin quickly comforted the frightened little shepherdess.

With a serious and gentle gesture, the Lady herself made, as if to encourage the child, the Sign of the Cross. And Bernadette’s hand, rising little by little as if invisibly carried by Her who is called the Help of Christians, made at the same time the holy sign of the Cross.

The child was no longer afraid. Dazzled, charmed, yet doubting herself at times and rubbing her eyes, her gaze constantly attracted by this celestial Apparition, not really knowing what to think, she humbly prayed her rosary: As she had just finished it by saying: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was at the beginning…” the Lady of light suddenly disappeared.

Lourdes, Sunday February 14th 1858, second apparition

On her way back from Mass, Bernadette asked her sister Marie, Jeanne and two or three other children to plead with her mother to lift her defence and allow them to return to the Rocks of Massabielle.

– Perhaps it is something wicked, the children said.

Bernadette replied that she did not believe it, that she had never seen such a wonderfully gentle countenance.

-In any case,” said the little girls, who were better educated than the poor shepherdess of Bartrès and knew a little catechism, “in any case, we must throw holy water on her. If it is the devil, he will go away. You will say to him: “If you come from God, come closer; if you come from the devil, go away.”

After obtaining the desired permission, the little group went to the church and prayed for a few moments. One of Bernadette’s companions had brought a half-litre bottle, which was filled with holy water. When they arrived at the Grotto, nothing appeared at first.

-Let us pray,” said Bernadette, “and pray the Rosary.

The children knelt down and began to pray the Rosary separately.

Suddenly Bernadette’s face seemed to be transfigured, and indeed it was. An extraordinary emotion is painted on all her features; her eyes, more brilliant, seem to draw in a divine light.

Dressed as she had been for the first time, the marvellous Apparition with her feet on the rock had just appeared before her eyes.

-Look!” she said, “there she is!

Alas, the sight of the other children was not miraculously free, like hers, from the veil of flesh which prevents the spiritualised bodies from being seen. The little girls could only see the deserted rock and the branches of the rosebush that reached down to the foot of the alcove where Bernadette contemplated an unknown Being. However, Bernadette’s face was such that there was no room for doubt. One of the children placed the bottle of holy water in the Seer’s hands. Then Bernadette, remembering what she had promised, stood up, and shaking the little bottle briskly and repeatedly, sprinkled the wonderful Lady, who was standing gracefully a few steps in front of her in the niche.

-If you have come on behalf of God, come closer,” said Bernadette.

At these words and gestures of the child, the Virgin bowed several times and almost came to the edge of the rock. She seemed to smile at Bernadette’s precautions and her weapons of war, and at the sacred Name of God her face lit up.

-If you come from God, come,” Bernadette repeated…

But, seeing her so beautiful, so bright with glory, so resplendent with heavenly goodness, she felt her heart break as she added: “If you come from the Devil, go away. These words, which had been dictated to her, seemed monstrous in the presence of the incomparable Being, and they fled from her mind forever without having reached her lips.

She prostrated herself again and continued to pray the rosary, which Our Lady seemed to be listening to, as she herself slipped hers between her fingers. At the end of this prayer, the Apparition faded away.

Lourdes, Thursday February 18th 1858, third apparition

The next morning, Thursday February 18th, at about six o’clock, after hearing the five-thirty Mass in the church, Bernadette, together with Antoinette Peyret and Mrs Millet, set off for the Grotto. After climbing the side of the Espélugue mountain to reach the grotto, Bernadette knelt down and began to pray the rosary, looking at the still empty niche lined with the branches of the dog rose. Suddenly she gave a cry; the well-known brightness of the halo shone in the depths of the excavation; a Voice was heard calling her. The marvellous Apparition was once again standing a few steps below her. The admirable Virgin bent her face towards the child, all lit up with an eternal serenity, and with a gesture of her hand, she beckoned her to come closer.

At this moment, after a thousand painful efforts, Bernadette’s two companions, Antoinette and Mme Millet, arrived. They saw the child’s features, transfigured by ecstasy. The latter hears and sees them.

– She is there,” she says. She waves me forward.

– Ask her if she is angry that we are here with you. Otherwise we’ll go away.

Bernadette looked at the Virgin, invisible to anyone but herself, listened for a moment and then turned back to her companions.

– You may stay,” she replied.

Trusting Mary

The two women knelt beside the child and lit a blessed candle they had brought. It was probably the first time since the creation of the world that such a light shone in this wild place. This simple act, which seemed to inaugurate a sanctuary, had in itself a mysterious solemnity.

Bernadette, rapt in ecstasy, contemplated the spotless beauty. Her companions then challenged her:

— Move towards Her since She is calling you and beckoning you. Move closer. Ask her who She is? why is she coming here? Is it a soul in Purgatory who begs for prayers, who wants Mass to be said for her?… Ask her to write on this paper what she wishes. We are willing to do whatever she wants, whatever is necessary for her rest.

The Seer took the paper, the ink and the pen offered to her, and advanced towards the Apparition, whose maternal gaze encouraged her as she saw her approach. However, with each step the child took, the Apparition retreated little by little into the interior of the excavation. Bernadette lost sight of her for a moment and entered the arch of the Lower Grotto. There, still above her but much closer, in the opening of the niche, she saw the Glorious Virgin again.

Bernadette, holding in her hand the objects that had just been given to her, rose to her feet to reach, with her small arms and her modest size, the height where the supernatural Being was standing. Her two companions also came forward to try to hear the conversation that was about to begin. But Bernadette, without turning around, and as if herself obeying a gesture from the Apparition, signed to them with her hand not to approach. All confused, they withdrew a little aside.

— My Lady, said the child, if you have something to tell me, would you be so kind as to write down who you are and what you wish.

An extraordinary promise

The Blessed Virgin smiles at this naive request. Her lips opened and She spoke:

— What I have to tell you, She replied, I don’t need to write it down. Just do me the favour to come here for a fortnight.

— I promise, said Bernadette.

The Virgin smiled again and made a sign of satisfaction, thus showing her full confidence in the words of this poor peasant girl of fourteen years old. At Bernadette’s word, She too replied with a solemn pledge:

— And I, she said, promise to make you happy, not in this world, but in the next.

To the child who granted her a few days, a few days to visit her, She assured, in return, eternity and eternal happiness.

Bernadette, without losing sight of the Apparition, returned to her companions. She noticed that, while following her with Her eyes, the Virgin rested Her gaze for a long moment and benevolently on Antoinette Peyret, the one of the two who was not married and who was a member of the Congregation of the Children of Mary. She repeated to them what had just happened.

— She’s looking at you right now, said the Seer to Antoinette. She was completely seized by this word, and since that time she has lived on this memory.

— Ask Her, they said, if it would bother Her that during this Fortnight we came with you here every day?

Coming to Lourdes

Bernadette asked the Apparition.

-They can come back with you,” replied Our Lady, “they and others. I want to see people here.

As she said this, she disappeared, leaving behind her the luminous light with which she was surrounded, and which gradually faded away. On this occasion, as on the others, the child noticed a detail which seemed to be the law of that halo with which the Virgin was constantly surrounded.

-When the Vision takes place,” she said in her own language, “I see the Light first and then the ‘Lady’; when the Vision ceases, the ‘Lady’ disappears first and the Light second.

Lourdes, Sunday February 21st 1858, fourth apparition.

The child simply crossed, without assurance or embarrassment, the crowd which parted respectfully in front of her, letting her pass; and she went and knelt and prayed under the niche where the branch of wild rose wound.

A few moments later, we saw her forehead light up and become radiant. Blood, however, did not come to the face; on the contrary, it paled slightly, as if nature gave way a little in the presence of the Apparition which manifested before it. The half-open mouth was gaping with admiration and seemed to be breathing in Heaven itself. The eyes, fixed and blissful, contemplated an invisible beauty, which no other gaze perceived, but which everyone felt was present, which everyone, so to speak, saw by reverberation on the face of the child.

All those who have seen Bernadette in ecstasy speak of this spectacle as of something which is unique on earth.

Remarkable thing! although her attention was entirely absorbed by the contemplation of the Virgin full of grace, she was partly aware of what was happening around her. At a certain moment his candle went out; she stretched out her hand for the nearest person to light it again. Someone having wanted to touch the wild rose with a stick, she made a quick sign to leave it, and her face expressed fear.— I was afraid, she then said naively, that someone touch or harm the “Lady”.

Medical science in Lourdes at the very beginning of the apparitions

One of the watchers whose name we have quoted Doctor Dozous, was beside her.

– This,” he thought, “is neither the catalepsy with its stiffness, nor the unconscious ecstasy of the hallucinated; it is an extraordinary fact, of a kind quite unknown to Medicine.

He took the child’s arm and felt her pulse. She seemed to take no notice. The pulse was perfectly calm and regular as in the ordinary state. – So there is no sickly excitement,” said the learned doctor to himself, becoming more and more excited.

At this moment the Seer took a few steps forward into the Grotto on her knees. The Apparition had moved, and it was now through the inner opening that Bernadette could see it; the gaze of the Blessed Virgin seemed in an instant to cover the whole of the earth; and she returned it, full of pain, to Bernadette kneeling.

– What is the matter? What must be done?

-Pray for sinners,” replied the Mother of Mankind.

Seeing pain veil, like a cloud, the eternal serenity of the Blessed Virgin, the heart of the poor shepherdess suddenly felt a cruel suffering. An inexpressible sadness spread over her features. From her eyes, still wide open and fixed on the Apparition, two tears rolled down her cheeks and stopped without falling.

At last a ray of joy came to light up her face: for the Virgin had undoubtedly turned her gaze towards hope and contemplated, in the Father’s Heart, the inexhaustible source of infinite mercy descending on the world, in the name of Jesus and through the hands of the Church. It was at this moment that the Apparition faded away. The Queen of Heaven had just returned to her Kingdom. The halo, as usual, remained for a few more seconds, then faded away imperceptibly, like a luminous mist which melts and disappears in the air.

Lourdes, Tuesday the 23rd of February 1858, fifth apparition.

On Monday the 22nd of February, Bernadette suffered greatly from not seeing “the Lady”. Her parents had forbidden her to go to the grotto to obey the government, and Bernadette was torn between the will of her parents and that of the admirable Virgin. In order for the child to be faithful to these two opposing wills, the divine hand pushed Bernadette towards the grotto by supernatural strength, but when the child was there, keeping her promise to Our Lady, She did not show up, however, in order to respect the established order on earth.

The next morning, Tuesday the 23rd of February, the crowd was in front of the Grotto before sunrise. Bernadette arrived with that calm simplicity which was not affected by the threatening hostility of some or the enthusiastic veneration of others. The sadness and anguish of the previous day had left some traces on her face. She still feared that she would not see the Apparition again, and whatever her hope, she dared not give in to it.

She knelt down humbly, resting one of her hands on a blessed candle which she had brought or which was given to her, and holding the rosary in the other. The weather was calm and the flame of the candle rose straight up to heaven like Bernadette’s prayer! No sooner had the child knelt down than the ineffable Beauty, whose return she had been so ardently invoking, manifested herself before her eyes and swept her off her feet.

The august Sovereign of Heaven looked at the child with inexpressible tenderness, seeming to love her even more since she had suffered. She seemed to want to make the ties that bound her to this unknown and ignorant little girl, to this humble shepherd of sheep, completely personal and familiar. She called her by her name, with that harmonious voice whose deep charm delights the ears of angels.

– Bernadette!” said the divine Mother.

– Here I am,” replied the child.

– I have a secret thing to tell you for you alone and about you alone. Will you promise never to repeat it to anyone in this world?

– I do promise,” said Bernadette.

The dialogue continued and entered into a deep mystery which it is neither possible nor permissible for us to defile.

The desire of Mary Immaculate

In whatever way, when this kind of intimacy was established, the Queen of the Eternal Kingdom looked at this little child, who had suffered only the day before and who was still to suffer for the love of Her, and it pleased Her to choose her as the ambassador of Her will among men.

– And now, my daughter,” she said to Bernadette, “go and tell the priests that I want a chapel built here for me.

And as she said these words, her face, her look and her gesture seemed to promise that she would pour out graces without limit. After these words. She disappeared, and Bernadette’s face retreated into the shadows, as the earth retreats into the shadows in the evening, when the sun has gradually faded away in the depths of the sky.