Yesterday the feast of our Lady of Lourdes was declared by Pope Francis as the World Day of Healing. 
It was on February 11, 1858 that a fourteen year old girl, from the village of Lourdes in France was sent by her mother to fetch firewood. The girl was Bernadette Soubirour- eldest in a family of four poorest of the poor. Their father had lost employment on a minor problem. The firewood so fetched was to be sold to buy food for the family. Bernadette was accompanied by her sister and another friend, and the trio very playfully went to Massabielle.  As they had to cross the river the two companions hurriedly removed their stockings and crossed the river. Bernadette being an asthmatic was slow. What happened when she was hesitatingly removing her stockings was later described to her Sister Superior as follows: - “Suddenly I heard a murmur, and then a sound of a rushing wind, it was like when a storm was blowing up. I looked all around but everything was very still. There was no movement in the trees. I heard the sound again and looked towards the cave.  Then I noticed a wild rose was shaking violently.
 

Inside the cave was a young lady, she wore a long white dress with a blue sash around her waist, over her hair there was veil, on each foot there was a golden rose and she had a white rosary, it had a gold chain between each bead. I couldn’t believe my eyes, so I rubbed them.  But no, the lady was really there. I got frightened and tried to make the sign of the cross, but couldn’t because my hands were so heavy.  Then the lady made the sign of the cross and I was able to do so.  After that I took the rosary out of my pocked and began to say the prayers. Although she ran her fingers through the beads of her rosary, the lady’s lips did not move except for the Gloria. When I finished saying the rosary, the lady disappeared. “

The first appearance of the lady on Feb 11. caused problems to Bernadette. First she was compelled to relate the story to her companions. She managed to get them to promise not to divulge the incident. Just like any other girl, her sister breaking the promise, had informed their mother who on suspecting some evil influence, had got on the war path, forbidding them visits to Massabielle.  

But Bernadette with great effort and much persuasion was able to win over her mother who also through much curiosity agreed to accompany her to Massabiel. At this second visit Bernadette giving some consideration to the idea of evil spirits, took care to carry some Holy Water which she sprinkled at the lady, only to receive a sympathetic smile from her.

As the lady was silent at the first two apparitions, Bernadette, now, made a visit with pen and paper in hand. When the lady appeared she presented the pen and paper to write her name at which the lady spoke for the first time to say “It is not necessary, would you do me the grace of coming here to this Grotto for fourteen days. 

By about the sixth apparition, few hundred used to accompany Bernadette to the Grotto and the number kept on increasing rapidly with Lourdes, the little town becoming a city full of excitement.  The Internal Prosecutor was the first to summon her for interrogation which went on as follows:-

Q Do you know who I am ?
Yes Monsieur, you are the Internal Prosecutor

Q  o Bernadette you have seen the Blessed Virgin?
I am not saying I have seen the Holy Virgin

Q  So that is what I thought, you have seen nothing?
I have, I have seen something

Q  What did you see?
Something white

Q You are not specific enough, you saw something or someone?
This thing has the form of a young woman

Q  And that thing never told  you   that I am the Virgin Mary
This thing never told  me so.  

Q  The lady you claim to have seen wears clothes?
Yes Sir, of course she wears a long white dress with a blue belt.  She has a yellow rose on each foot and rosary in hand.

Q And she presents the same way each time?
Yes Sir

Q And what did she look like, is she beautiful?
Yes Sir, very beautiful, I have never seen anything as beautiful.

Q Enough, I have had enough, you will tell  me the truth or I will send you to prison
I have told you the truth. Do to me whatever you want.

Q I warned you, do not make me lose patience.  If you admit that you have invented this story, I will ensure that this matter be resolved with discretion, but if you obstinate to go take me for a fool, be careful my daughter 
I told you the truth.

Q  Enough . I cannot listen to you anymore.  For now I will send you home, but if this story is repeated, I will have to put you in jail.  
You must do your duty.

Her next encounter was with a psychiatrist.  – a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology who examined her as follows:-
Q  What is your name?

You know that Monsieur

Q More sternly – What is your name?
Bernadette, Bernadette Soubirous, Monsieur

Q  How many hours a day?

Twenty four

QHow many days a week?

Seven Monsieur

Q  How much is five times seven ?

Thirty five

Q How much is seventeen times eighteen ?

I do not know Monsieur
After a while Bernadette asks “Would you know the answer Monsieur?”
The professor was in the blues with the test ending. After further tests by medical specialists the Conclusion was “The only disease that we can attribute to Bernadette poses no danger to her mental health.”

It was on Thursday 25th February at the 9th apparition that Bernadette made the discovery to bring the world’s attention to the Grotto at Lourdes. Following the directions given by the lady, Bernadette kept searching around looking for something and started digging the ground with her fingers at a certain spot.  Initially there was trickle of water. Gradually the trickle becoming a spring. The trickle that Bernadette caused on that cold day in February 1858 turned to be the Miraculous Spring of Lourdes, flowing to this day healing thousands. The first to experience the power of the spring was a thirty nine old woman. 

On March 2nd the lady gives a message “Go tell the Parish Priest to build a chapel here and the people to come here in procession “By this time visitors to the Grotto had gone up to thousands and the Police had the Grotto barricaded. Bernadette was summoned for a medical test with the intention of getting her declared insane. That too was a failure.

Around this time the Emperor’s child had fallen seriously ill and the Royal nurse was sent to collect Lourdes water and the child was healed. Thereafter the barriers were removed and the Grotto was reopened by the decree of the Emperor Louis Bonaparte.

At the 16th apparition on March 25the Lady finally came out with her name which Bernadette described as follows:- “She lifted up her eyes to Heaven, joined hands as in prayer, opened her hands towards ground, leaning forward said to me in a voice with great emotion’ “I am the Immaculate Conception” and the lady vanished.

Lourdes thereafter became a worldwide Pilgrim Centre.  The request made by the “Lady” to Bernadette to make the people come there in procession is duly carried out not annually or monthly but daily, commencing at 9.30 pm French time, carrying the statue of the Blessed Virgin accompanied by hundreds of candle lights singing Ave Maris Stella” and a host of invalids on wheel chairs.

Many are the books written and movies made on the happening at Lourdes. Of these the movie made on the book “The Song of Bernadette” by Twentieth Century Fox is held in high esteem. The blessings of St Bernadette (Canonized a Saint on 08th Dec 1933, with her mortal remains lying uncorrupt to date) must surely have come upon its young Hollywood actress Jennifer Jones who in her maiden film portrayed the character of Bernadette so well as to have not only won the Academy Award for best actress but also to have a very successful movie career and lived happily up to the ripe old age of ninety years.