Bernadette Soubirous, born in Lourdes in 1844, was 14 when the Virgin appeard to her at the Rock of Massabielles.
In order to fulfil her desire for a religious life, Bernadette arrived at St Gildard, the house of the Sisters of Charity at Nevers on 7th July 1866. She had previously met the Sisters at their hospice in Lourdes. She stayed at Nevers, in the Congregation's Mother House, for 13 years. Her simple and ordinary life was entirely consecrated to God in a chapel in the garden.
Many pilgrims and tourists of all nationalities come to visit Bernadette. Her intact body is located in the main chapel of the sanctuary. For the process of beatification and canonisation, three inspections of the body took place in 1909, 1919 and 1925. Each time the body was found to be intact. In 1925 she was declared blessed and her body was placed in a shrine in the chapel where it still remains. Bernadette was declared a Saint in 1933.
Today thousands of people from all over the world, of all ages and cultures, come to pray to Bernadette.
