Feastday: April 16
Patron: of illness, people ridiculed for their piety, poverty, shepherds, shepherdesses, and Lourdes, France
Birth: January 7, 1844
Death: April 16, 1879
Beatified: 1925
Canonized: by Pope Pius XI on December 1933
St. Bernadette was born in Lourdes, France on January 7, 1844. Her parents were very poor and she was the first of nine children. She was baptized at St. Pierre's, the local parish church, on January 9. As a toddler, Bernadette contracted cholera and suffered extreme asthma. Unfortunately, she lived the rest of her life in poor health.
On Thursday, February 11, 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, when a very beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha).
The woman wore blue and white and smiled at Bernadette before making the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold. Bernadette fell to her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray. Bernadette later described the woman as "uo petito damizelo," meaning "a small young lady. Though her sister and friend claimed they were unable to see her, Bernadette knew what she saw was real.
Three days later, Bernadette, her sister Marie, and other girls returned to the grotto, where Bernadette immediately knelt, saying she could see "aquero" again. She fell into a trance and one girl threw holy water at the niche and another threw a rock that shattered on the ground. It was then that the apparition disappeared.
On February 18, Bernadette said "the vision" asked her to return to the grotto each day for a fortnight. With each visit, Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary and the period of daily visions became known as "la Quinzaine sacrée," meaning "holy fortnight."
When Bernadette began to visit the grotto, her parents were embarrassed and attempted to stop her, but were unable to do so. On February 25, Bernadette claimed to have had a life-changing vision.
The vision had told her "to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb that grew there" as an act of penance. The next day, the grotto's muddy waters had been cleared and fresh clear water flowed.
On March 2, at the thirteenth of the apparitions, Bernadette told her family the lady said "a chapel should be built and a procession formed."
During her sixteenth vision, which Bernadette claims to have experienced for over an hour, was on March 25. Bernadette claimed she had asked the woman her name, but her question was only met with a smile. Bernadette asked again, three more times, and finally the woman said, "I am the Immaculate Conception."
Though many townspeople believed she had indeed been seeing the Holy Virgin, Bernadette's story created a division in her town. Many believed she was telling the truth, while others believed she had a mental illness and demanded she be put in a mental asylum. Some believed Bernadette's visions meant she needed to pray for penance.
Church authorities and the French government rigorously interviewed the girl, and by 1862 they confirmed she spoke truth. Since Bernadette first caused the spring to produce clean water, 69 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and after what the Church claimed were "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations," no one was able to explain what caused the cures.
The Lourdes Commission that initially examined Bernadette, ran an analysis on the water but were only able to determine it contained a high mineral content. Bernadette believed it was faith and prayer that was responsible for curing the sick.
Bernadette asked the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. Many other chapels and churches has been built around it, including the Basilica of St. Pius X, which can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France.
Following the miracles and constructions, Bernadette decided she did not like the attention she was getting and went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she was taught to read and write. Though she considered joining the Carmelites, her health was too fragile.
On July 29, 1866, Bernadette took the religious habit of a postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers. Her Mistress of Novices was Sister Marie Therese Vauzou and the Mother Superior at the time named her Marie-Bernarde, in honor of her grandmother.
Bernadette spent the rest of her life there working as an infirmary assistant, and later a sacristan. People admired her humility and spirit of sacrifice. Once a nun asked her if she had temptations of pride because she was favored by the Blessed Mother. "How can I?" she answered quickly. "The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant."
Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone in her right knee and was unable to take part in convent life. She died in the Sainte Croix (Holy Cross) Infirmary of the Convent of Saint-Gildard at the age of 35 on April 16, 1879, while praying the holy rosary.
Even on her deathbed Bernadette suffered severe pain and, keeping with the Virgin Mary's admonition of "Penance, Penance, Penance," she proclaimed "all this is good for Heaven!" Bernadette's last words were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me. A poor sinner, a poor sinner."
The nuns of Saint-Gildard, with the support of the bishop of Nevers, applied to the civil authorities for permission to bury Bernadette's body in a small chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, which was within the confines of the convent. Permission was granted on April 25, 1879, and on April 30, the local Prefect pronounced his approval of the choice of the site for burial. On May 30, 1879, Bernadette's coffin was transferred to the crypt of the chapel of Saint Joseph, where a very simple ceremony was held to commemorate the event.
Thirty years layer, on September 22, two doctors and a sister of the community exhumed her body. They claimed the crucifix and rosary she carried had been oxidized but her body remained incorrupt. The incorruption was cited as one of the miracles supporting her canonization.
The group washed and redressed Bernadette's body then buried it in a new double casket. The Church exhumed her body again on April 3, 1919, and the doctor who examined her said, "The body is practically mummified, covered with patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts, which appear to be calcium salts ... The skin has disappeared in some places, but it is still present on most parts of the body."
In 1925, Bernadette's body was exhumed yet again. This time relics were sent to Rome and an imprint of her face was molded, which was used to create a wax mask to be placed on her body. There were also imprints of her hands to be used for the presentation of her body, which was placed in a gold and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the mother house in Nevers.
In 1928, Doctor Comte published a report on Bernadette's exhumation in the second issue of the Bulletin de I'Association medicale de Notre-Dame de Lourdes, where he wrote:
"I would have liked to open the left side of the thorax to take the ribs as relics and then remove the heart which I am certain must have survived. However, as the trunk was slightly supported on the left arm, it would have been rather difficult to try and get at the heart without doing too much noticeable damage.
"As the Mother Superior had expressed a desire for the Saint's heart to be kept together with the whole body, and as Monsignor the Bishop did not insist, I gave up the idea of opening the left-hand side of the thorax and contented myself with removing the two right ribs which were more accessible.
"What struck me during this examination, of course, was the state of perfect preservation of the skeleton, the fibrous tissues of the muscles (still supple and firm), of the ligaments, and of the skin, and above all the totally unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet, when it was cut it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon."
Saint Bernadette is often depicted in prayer with a rosary or appealing to the Holy Virgin. She was beatified in 1925 and canonized by Pope Piuis XI in December 1933. Saint Bernadette is the patroness of illness, people ridiculed for their piety, poverty, shepherds, shepherdesses, and Lourdes, France.
French Roman Catholic saint
Bernadette Soubirous (/ˌbɜːrnəˈdɛt ˌsuːbiˈruː/; French: [bɛʁnadɛt subiʁu]; Occitan: Bernadeta Sobirós [beɾnaˈðetɔ suβiˈɾus]; 7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879), also known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing Marian apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto at Massabielle. These apparitions are said to have occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the woman who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception."
After a canonical investigation, Soubirous's reports were eventually declared "worthy of belief" on 18 February, 1862, and the Marian apparition became known as Our Lady of Lourdes. Since her death, Soubirous's body has remained internally incorrupt. The Marian shrine at Lourdes (Midi-Pyrénées, from 2016 part of Occitanie) went on to become a major pilgrimage site, attracting over five million pilgrims of all denominations each year.
On 8 December 1933, Pope Pius XI, declared Soubirous a saint of the Catholic Church. Her feast day, initially specified as 18 February – the day Mary promised to make her happy, not in this life, but in the other – is now observed in most places on the date of her death, 16 April.
Early stages of her life
Marie Bernarde Soubirous was the daughter of François Soubirous (1807–1871), a miller, and Louise (née Casteròt; 1825–1866), a laundress. She was the eldest of nine children—Bernadette, Jean (born and died 1845), Toinette (1846–1892), Jean-Marie (1848–1851), Jean-Marie (1851–1919), Justin (1855–1865), Pierre (1859–1931), Jean (born and died 1864), and a baby named Louise who died soon after her birth (1866).
Soubirous was born on 7 January 1844 and baptized at the local parish church, St. Pierre's, on 9 January, her parents' wedding anniversary. Her godmother was Bernarde Casterot, her mother's sister, a moderately wealthy widow who owned a tavern. Hard times had fallen on France and the family lived in extreme poverty. Soubirous was a sickly child and possibly due to this only measured 1.4 m (4 ft. 7in.) tall. She contracted cholera as a toddler and suffered severe asthma for the rest of her life. Soubirous attended the day school conducted by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction from Nevers. Contrary to a belief popularized by Hollywood films, Soubirous learned very little French, only studying French in school after age 13. At that time she could read and write very little due to her frequent illness. She spoke the language of Occitan, which was spoken by the local population of the Pyrenees region at that time and to a residual degree today (which is similar to Catalan spoken in eastern Spain).
Visions
Main article: Lourdes apparitionsBy the time of the events at the grotto, the Soubirous family's financial and social status had declined to the point where they lived in a one-room basement, formerly used as a jail, called le cachot, "the dungeon", where they were housed for free by her mother's cousin, André Sajoux.
On 11 February 1858, Soubirous, then aged 14, was out gathering firewood with her sister Toinette and a friend near the grotto of Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha) when she experienced her first vision. While the other girls crossed the little stream in front of the grotto and walked on, Soubirous stayed behind, looking for a place to cross where she wouldn't get her stockings wet. She finally sat down to take her shoes off in order to cross the water and was lowering her stocking when she heard the sound of rushing wind, but nothing moved. A wild rose in a natural niche in the grotto, however, did move. From the niche, or rather the dark alcove behind it, "came a dazzling light, and a white figure". This was the first of 18 visions of what she referred to as aquerò (pronounced [ake'ɾɔ]), Gascon Occitan for "that". In later testimony, she called it "a small young lady" (uo petito damizelo). Her sister and her friend stated that they had seen nothing.
On 14 February, after Sunday Mass, Soubirous, with her sister Marie and some other girls, returned to the grotto. Soubirous knelt down immediately, saying she saw the apparition again and falling into a trance. When one of the girls threw holy water at the niche and another threw a rock from above that shattered on the ground, the apparition disappeared. On her next visit, 18 February, Soubirous said that "the vision" asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight.
This period of almost daily visions came to be known as la Quinzaine sacrée, "holy fortnight." Initially, Soubirous's parents, especially her mother, were embarrassed and tried to forbid her to go. The supposed apparition did not identify herself until the seventeenth vision. Although the townspeople who believed she was telling the truth assumed she saw the Virgin Mary, Soubirous never claimed it to be Mary, consistently using the word aquero. She described the lady as wearing a white veil, a blue girdle and with a yellow rose on each foot – compatible with "a description of any statue of the Virgin in a village church".
Soubirous's story caused a sensation with the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not she was telling the truth. Some believed her to have a mental illness and demanded she be put in an asylum.
The other contents of Soubirous's reported visions were simple and focused on the need for prayer and penance. On 25 February she explained that the vision had told her "to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb that grew there," as an act of penance. To everyone's surprise, the next day the grotto was no longer muddy but clear water flowed. On 2 March, at the thirteenth of the alleged apparitions, Soubirous told her family that the lady said that "a chapel should be built and a procession formed".
Soubirous's 16th claimed vision, which she stated went on for over an hour, was on 25 March. According to her account, during that visitation, she again asked the woman for her name but the lady just smiled back. She repeated the question three more times and finally heard the lady say, in Gascon Occitan, "I am the Immaculate Conception" (Qué soï era immaculado councepcioũ, a phonetic transcription of Que soi era immaculada concepcion).
Some of the people who interviewed Soubirous after her revelation of the visions thought her simple-minded. However, despite being rigorously interviewed by officials of both the Catholic Church and the French government, she stuck consistently to her story.
Results of her visions
After investigation, Catholic Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862. In the 160 years since Soubirous dug up the spring, 70 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau as "inexplicable" – after what the Catholic Church claims are "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations" that failed to find any other explanation. The Lourdes Commission that examined Bernadette after the visions ran an intensive analysis on the water and found that, while it had a high mineral content, it contained nothing out of the ordinary that would account for the cures attributed to it. Bernadette said that it was faith and prayer that cured the sick: "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith".
Soubirous's request to the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions eventually gave rise to a number of chapels and churches at Lourdes. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. One of the churches built at the site, the Basilica of St. Pius X, can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France. Close to 5 million pilgrims from all over the world visit Lourdes (population of about 15,000) every year to pray and to drink the miraculous water, believing that they obtain from the Lord healing of the body and of the spirit.
Later years
Bernadette in 1866, after having taken the religious habit and joining the Sisters of Charity
Disliking the attention she was attracting, Bernadette went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers where she had learned to read and write. Although she considered joining the Carmelites, her health precluded her entering any of the strict contemplative orders. On 29 July 1866, with 42 other candidates, she took the religious habit of a postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers. Her Mistress of Novices was Sister Marie Therese Vauzou. The Mother Superior at the time gave her the name Marie-Bernarde in honor of her godmother who was named "Bernarde". As Patricia A. McEachern observes, "Bernadette was devoted to Saint Bernard, her patron saint; she copied long texts related to him in notebooks and on bits of paper. The experience of becoming 'Sister Marie-Bernard' marked a turning point for Bernadette as she realized more than ever that the great grace she received from the Queen of Heaven brought with it great responsibilities."
Soubirous spent the rest of her brief life at the motherhouse, working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. Her contemporaries admired her humility and spirit of sacrifice. One day, asked about the apparitions, she replied:
The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.
Soubirous had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876.
Unfortunately, Soubirous's childhood bout of "cholera left...[Bernadette] with severe, chronic asthma, and eventually she contracted tuberculosis of the lungs and bones." For several months prior to her death, she was unable to take an active part in convent life. She eventually died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on 16 April 1879 (the Wednesday after Easter), while praying the holy rosary. On her deathbed, as she suffered from severe pain and in keeping with the Virgin Mary's admonition of "Penance, Penance, Penance," Bernadette proclaimed that "all this is good for Heaven!" Her final words were, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner, a poor sinner". Soubirous's body was laid to rest in the Saint Gildard Convent.
Sainthood
Soubirous was declared blessed on 14 June 1921 by Pope Pius XI. She was canonized by Pius XI on 8 December 1933.
In the spring of 2015, the town of Lourdes lobbied for Soubirous's remains to be returned to Lourdes, a move opposed by the city of Nevers.
Exhumations
Full-body relic of Bernadette Soubirous. The photograph was taken at the last exhumation (18 April 1925). The saint died 46 years before the photo was taken; face and hands are covered with a wax coat.
Bishop Gauthey of Nevers and the Catholic Church exhumed the body of Soubirous on 22 September 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors and a sister of the community. They claimed that although the crucifix in her hand and her rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared incorrupt – preserved from decomposition. This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before burial in a new double casket.
The church exhumed the corpse a second time on 3 April 1919, on the occasion of the approval of Bernadette's canonization. Dr. Comte, who examined the body noted, "The body is practically mummified, covered with patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts, which appear to be calcium salts. … The skin has disappeared in some places, but it is still present on most parts of the body."
Relic of Saint Bernadette and stone from the Grotto of Lourdes, where the Marian apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes is said to have appeared
In 1925, the church exhumed the body for a third time. They took relics, which were sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos to be placed on her body. This was common practice for relics in France as it was feared that the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would be viewed as corruption by the public. Imprints of the hands were also taken for the presentation of the body and the making of wax casts. The remains were then placed in a gold and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the motherhouse in Nevers.
Three years later in 1928, Doctor Comte published a report on the exhumation of Soubirous in the second issue of the Bulletin de I'Association medicale de Notre-Dame de Lourdes.
"I would have liked to open the left side of the thorax to take the ribs as relics and then remove the heart which I am certain must have survived. However, as the trunk was slightly supported on the left arm, it would have been rather difficult to try and get at the heart without doing too much noticeable damage. As the Mother Superior had expressed a desire for the Saint's heart to be kept together with the whole body, and as Monsignor the Bishop did not insist, I gave up the idea of opening the left-hand side of the thorax and contented myself with removing the two right ribs which were more accessible. ... What struck me during this examination, of course, was the state of perfect preservation of the skeleton, the fibrous tissues of the muscles (still supple and firm), of the ligaments, and of the skin, and above all the totally unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet, when it was cut it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon."
Depictions
- In 1909 the French short movie Bernadette Soubirous et les Apparitions de Lourdes, directed by Honoré Le Sablais, is the first attempt to tell with the new cinematographic art the story of Bernadette, according to RAI 3 documentary Lourdes. La storia.
- In 1924 the French film Le miracle de Lourdes directed by Bernard Simon with Pierrette Lugand in the role of Soubirous.
- In 1926 the French film La vie merveilleuse de Bernadette directed by Georges Pallu and starring Alexandra as Soubirous.
- In 1935 the Portuguese Georges Pallu directed La Vierge du rocher ("The Virgin of the Rock") with Micheline Masson in the role of Bernadette.
- Soubirous's life was given a fictionalized treatment in Franz Werfel's 1941 novel, The Song of Bernadette, which was later adapted by Henry King into a 1943 film of the same name, starring Jennifer Jones as Bernadette and the uncredited Linda Darnell as the Immaculate Conception. Jones won the Best Actress Oscar for this portrayal.
- On 13 October 1958, the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse presented Song of Bernadette on the CBS television network starring Italian-born film and television actress Pier Angeli as Bernadette Soubirous. The cast also featured Marian Seldes and Norman Alden. The program, hosted by Desi Arnaz, was adapted by Ludi Claire from a story by Margaret Gray Blanton. It was directed by both Ralph Alswang and Claudio Guzmán.
- In 1961 Daniéle Ajoret portrayed Bernadette in Bernadette of Lourdes (French title: Il suffit d'aimer or Love is Enough) of Robert Darène.
- In 1961 the German TV movie Bernadette Soubirous directed by Hans Quest and starring Kornelia Boje.
- Cristina Galbó portrayed Aquella joven de blanco (A Little Maiden in White), Spain, 1965, directed by León Klimovsky.
- In 1967 a French TV movie L'affaire Lourdes directed by Marcel Bluwal and starring Marie-Hélène Breillat as Bernadette.
- In 1981 Andrea del Boca portrayed Bernadette in an eponymous Argentine television mini-series directed by her father Nicolás del Boca (4 episodes of 1 hour each).
- Bernadette in 1988 and La Passion de Bernadette (The Passion of Bernadette) in 1989 by Jean Delannoy, starring Sydney Penny in the lead role.
- In 1990 the musical Bernadette (Hughes and Hughes) ran for three and a half weeks at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, London. It was directed by Ernest Maxin.
- In 1990 Fernando Uribe and Steven Hahn directed a short animated film, Bernadette: La Princesa de Lourdes, produced by John Williams and Jorge Gonzalez, available in English since 1991 with the title Bernadette – The Princess of Lourdes.
- Angèle Osinsky portrayed Saint Bernadette in the Italian TV movie Lourdes, 2000, by Lodovico Gasparini.
- In 2002, the musical Vision by Jonathan Smith and Dominic Hartley, depicting the life of Bernadette, debuted in Liverpool. It has been performed in the UK, France, and Nigeria.
- In 2007 the Indian film Our Lady of Lourdes directed by V.R. Gopinath and starring Ajna Noiseux.
- In 2009 Bernadette, an opera in three acts by Trevor Jones. First performance 2016 in Gloucestershire, England.
- In 2011 the French short movie Grotta profunda, les humeurs du gouffre directed by Pauline Curnier-Jardin and starring Simon Fravega.
- In 2011 the French film Je m'appelle Bernadette directed by Jean Sagols and starring Katia Cuq (Katia Miran).
- In 2013 the French TV movie Une femme nommée Marie, directed by Robert Hossein and Dominique Thiel, starring Manon Le Moal.
- In 2013 Bernadette Kaviyam, a book published by Geetham Publications, Chennai. Bernadette's life explained with poetry by Poet C.P.Sivarasan, Mangalakuntu.
Bibliography
- Notre Dame de Lourdes (Henri Lasserre), Paris 1870 (French)
- Annales de Notre Dame de Lourdes (Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception), Lourdes 1871 (French)
- Sadler, Anna T. The Wonders of Lourdes, 1875
- Our Lady of Lourdes (Henri Lasserre), 1875 (English)
- La Sainte Vierge a Lourdes, 1877 (French)
- Bernadette (Henri Lasserre), Paris 1879 (year of Bernadette's death), (French)
- Clarke, SJ, Richard. Lourdes: Its Inhabitants, Its Pilgrims, and Its Miracles, 1888
- Lourdes (Émile Zola), 1895 (German)
- Our Lady of Lourdes (Henri Lasserre), June 1906 (English)
- Bernadette of Lourdes (J.H. Gregory), 1914 (1st U.S. book)
- The Wonders of Massabielle at Lourdes (Rev. S. Pruvost), 1925
- Bernadette of Lourdes, St. Gildard, Nevers, France, 1926
- The Wonder of Lourdes (John Oxenham), 1926
- Werfel, Franz. The Song of Bernadette, 1941
- After Bernadette (Don Sharkey), 1945
- "The Miracle Joint at Lourdes", from Essays by Woolsey Teller, Copyright 1945 by The Truth Seeker Company, Inc. Critique of the Lourdes story.
- A Queen's Command (Anna Kuhn), 1947
- My Witness, Bernadette (J.B. Estrade), 1951
- Das Lied von Bernadette (Franz Werfel), 1953 (German)
- We Saw Her (B.G. Sandhurst), 1953
- Keyes, Frances Parkinson. Bernadette of Lourdes, 1955
- St. Bernadette (Leonard Von Matt / Francis Trochu), 1957
- St. Bernadette Soubirous: 1844–1879, by Abbe Francois Trochu, TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., 1957
- The Miracle of Bernadette (Margaret Gray Blanton), 1958
- Bernadette (Marcelle Auclair), 1958
- And I Shall Be Healed (Edeltraud Fulda), 1960
- Saint Bernadette (Margaret Trouncer), 1964
- The Happening at Lourdes (Alan Neame), 1967
- Laurentin, Rene. Visage de Bernadette, Lourdes, 1978, (French)
- The Story of Bernadette (Rev. J. Lane), 1997
- Lourdes (Ruth Harris), 1999
- Bernadette Speaks: A Life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous in Her Own Words, René Laurentin, Pauline Books and Media, 2000
- Taylor, Thérèse (2003). Bernadette of Lourdes. Burns and Oates. ISBN 0-86012-337-5.
- A Holy Life: St. Bernadette of Lourdes (Patricia McEachern), 2005
Magazines and articles
- L'Illustration Journal Universal: Story covering Bernadette and apparitions from time of apparitions (23 October 1858)
- Harpers Weekly: The Last French Miracle (20 November 1858) – Recounts actual happenings at the time of apparitions
- The Graphic: A Trip to the Pyrenees (12 October 1872)
- Harpers Weekly: French Pilgrims – Romish Superstitions (16 November 1872)
- The Graphic: With the Lourdes Pilgrims (7 October 1876)
- The Illustrated London News: The Conclave & Election of the Pope (9 March 1878)
- L'Opinion Publique: The Funeral of Pope Pius IX (14 March 1878)
- St. Paul Dispatch: Throne of St. Peter Made Vacant by the Death of Pope Leo XIII, (21 July 1903)
- St. Paul Dispatch: Cardinal Sarto (St. Pope Pius X) of Venice Called to Throne of St. Peter, (5 August 1903)
- The Minneapolis Journal: Pope Pius X is Reported Dead; Relapse Caused by Grief Over War (19 August 1914)
- The London Illustrated News: The Election of Pope Pius XI (11 February 1922)
