The eldest of nine children, her parents were very poor and they lived in Lourdes, France. She suffered from severe asthma throughout her life. At the age of 14 years old, while collecting firewood on February 11, 1858, she saw an apparition of Our Lady in the grotto on the banks of Gave River. Our Lady appeared to her 18 times and Bernadette had much opposition and was interrogated by both civil and ecclesiastical authorities because of this. A spring was revealed to Saint Bernadette during one of the visions. Our Lady eventually told Bernadette that She was the “Immaculate Conception” which resulted in the local bishop acknowledging the visions to be authentic. A church was erected at the site of the grotto and the spring, today it is a popular Catholic pilgrimage site. There have been many medically documented cures in both body and soul resulting from the water at Lourdes. Saint Bernadette became a nun and died on April 16, 1879, in the convent at Nevers, France when she was 35 years old. In 1933 she was canonised by Pope Piux XI.
