Our Lady of Lourdes Saint Bernadette

Our Lady of Lourdes (1877, Italy) by Virgilio Tojetti Our Lady of Lourdes (Notre-Dame de Lourdes) The Virgin Mary, (Mary the mother of Christ) is venerated due to her apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The story of Lourdes is well known. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in that small town located in the foothills of the Pyrenee mountains of southern France. Bernadette Soubirous January 7, 1844–April 16, 1879, also known as Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes in France, and is known for apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel at the nearby cave-grotto. The woman who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception". The body of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, was exhumed three times after her death and was found incorrupt each time. She died in 1879 in Nevers, France at the age of 35. Her body was exhumed in 1909 and found to be completely incorrupt and free of odour. In 1919, her body was still found completely incorrupt. She was beatified in 1925 and canonised in 1933. Her body is on display at the Chapel of Saint Gildard at the Sisters of Charity in Nevers. Bernadette is the patron saint of bodily illness, Lourdes, against poverty, shepherds, and people ridiculed for their faith.