Grotte
the Grotto
Bernadette, Saint (1844-79), French peasant girl, who was
canonized in 1933. Born Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, at the age of 14 she
claimed that she had experienced numerous visions of the Virgin Mary and that
the Virgin had imparted miraculous powers of healing to the waters of a spring
near a grotto in Lourdes. The visions were declared authentic by the Roman
Catholic church, and the Lourdes grotto became a shrine for pilgrims. In 1866
Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity, a group of women bound by annual vows
to religious and charitable work. In 1877 she became a nun; she was beatified in
1925. Her feast day is April 16.
seeking healing
buy a plastic bottle to take the healing water home
filling the bottles
or take a drink
the end of a long pilgrimage
