Lourdes, our lady, immaculate conception

bernadette water spring

On Thursday, February 11th, 1858, the fire in the hearth of the "Cachot" went out. Bernadette, Toinette and a friend, Baloume, went to Massabielle in search of firewood. There, in the Grotto, a Lady dressed in “white" appeared to Bernadette. On the way home, Bernadette told her sister about her vision. Toinette, who had seen nothing herself, told their mother who forbade them to return to the Grotto. But, on Sunday, February 14th, with her father's permission, Bernadette did return, and the Lady appeared to her a second time. In town, there was talk of some kind of a carnival prank. On Thursday, February 18th, Madame Milhet - for whom Louise worked occasionally - and her seamstress, went with Bernadette. They urged her to ask the Lady to sign her name. Smiling, the Lady spoke for the first time, and said, in the local dialect, "That won't be necessary... Would you be good enough to come here every day for a fortnight ? ... I promise you happiness, not in this world, but in the next". In town, the two women talked. For the fourth apparition, on February 19th, there were eight curious onlookers, thirty the following day, and a hundred on the 21st. That same evening, Bernadette was summoned by Police Superintendent Jacomet, and submitted to a grueling interrogation.

		Although forbidden to go there, on February 23rd she returned to the Grotto and the vision she called “aquero" - or "that" - appeared again. On February 24th, for her eight apparition, the Lady said, "Penitence", then, "Would you pray to God for the conversion of sinners ?" The following day she told Bernadette to "Go and drink at the spring and wash in it" and "eat of the grass that is there". Obediently, Bernadette dug a hole which filled with muddy water. On February 27th and 28th, and March 1st, "aquero" appeared again at Massabielle, where a clear spring now flowed.
	During the thirteenth vision, on March 2nd, the Lady said, "Tell the priests to let the people come in procession and let a chapel be built". On March 3rd, she repeated her instructions. But the parish priest, Father Peyramale, required a sign. "First let her tell you her name, then have her make the rosebush at the Grotto flower", he said. On March 4th, the last day of the fortnight, the Lady said nothing. Not until the 16th apparition, on March 25th, did she say, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Bernadette ran to repeat these words to an astonished Father Peyramale. On April 7th, nearly a thousand people witnessed the "miracle of the candle". On July 16th, since the authorities had fenced off the Grotto, Bernadette slipped away to the meadow on the far bank of the Gave for an eighteenth and final meeting with her Lady. "Never had I seen her looking so beautiful", she said.