Bernadette Soubirous

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bernadette Soubirous, 1858. She was the first person later canonized to be photographed.

Bernadette Soubirous , baptized name Marie Bernarde Soubirous or Occitan Maria Bernada Sobeirons , in the literature sometimes also Maria Bernadette Soubirous , (born  January 7, 1844 in Lourdes ; †  April 16, 1879 in Nevers on the Loire ) was a French religious sister who was 14 -year-old girl stated to have had a total of 18 apparitions between February 11 and July 16, 1858, which were interpreted a little later by the church as apparitions of Mary . This interpretation is still controversial to this day, especially since the girl did not claim in the first interviews that she had seen Our Lady . In the Roman Catholic Church , however, Bernadette Soubirous is venerated as a saint because of this interpretation and the subsequent miraculous healings . In just a few years, Bernadette's birthplace became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe, visited by six million pilgrims every year. Bernadette Soubirous left Lourdes in 1866 after becoming a nun in 1864. She was beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1933.

Life

Childhood and youth

General plan of Lourdes around 1858
'Father House of St. Bernadette 'says the inscription ⊙
Bernadette Soubirous in front of the Lourdes Grotto in a photo from 1863
Bernadette Soubirous (1866)

As the eldest daughter of the miller François Soubirous (1807–1871) and his wife Louise b. Castérot (1825–1866), Bernadette Soubirous grew up in Lourdes, a small town with about 4,000 inhabitants at the northern foot of the Pyrenees . She was born in one of the flour mills there, the Boly mill. Her godparents were Jean Védère and the elder sister of their mother Bernarde Casterot. Bernadette Soubirous was the oldest of nine siblings, five of whom died very young.

The parents ran a water mill , but had to stop operating in 1854 because they were no longer able to cope with industrial competition. The region also suffered from growing impoverishment and epidemics raged. The population had increased by 40% between 1801 and 1846. The father soon had to work as a day laborer , the mother worked in the fields, in a laundry and mended clothes. Both parents were alcoholic .

The historian and theologian Patrick Dondelinger summarized her childhood as “developmental suffering”: When Soubirous was ten months old, her mother burned her breasts. As a result, she could no longer breastfeed her daughter herself . As a result, the infant was given to Marie Lagues in Bartrès , whose own baby had died. Marie Lagues received five francs a month for her service as a wet nurse . At the age of two years and three months, the toddler came back to his parents in Lourdes, presumably because his wet nurse was expecting a child. In early childhood, Bernadette Soubirous contracted bronchial asthma that lasted until her death. General dystrophy is also attributed to it. In 1855, Bernadette became infected with cholera , which further exacerbated her asthma. At 14, Bernadette Soubirous looked several years younger than her age, and she was only about four feet tall.

As is common with children in their social circumstances, she did not speak standard French, but spoke the local Bigourdan of the Bigorre region . In May 1856, the family had to leave the mill, which had run into economic difficulties, and move to an empty house, called "Cachot" (German: "the dungeon"), which had previously been used as a detention facility. Their cousin André Sajous had given them this house. The family's poverty became so severe that Bernadette suffered from hunger as a child. The father was detained for a week on charges of stealing two sacks of flour from a baker, but was then released because the theft could not be proven.

In the winter of 1856 Soubirous came to her godmother Bernarde, for whom she had to work in their pub. There she was exploited and beaten. In September 1857 Soubirous lived again with her nurse Marie Lagues, where she was also treated strictly. Two weeks before the apparitions, Bernadette Soubirous returned to her parents in Lourdes.

Apparitions

On February 11, 1858 around 11 a.m., Bernadette, her sister Antoinette and her friend Jeanne Abadie went to the nearby Massabielle grotto ( Occitan massa vièlha , 'old rock') to collect wood across the river Gave de Pau . A woman dressed in white is said to have appeared to Bernadette for the first time in a small niche above the grotto: “One day I went with two girls to the Gave River to collect wood. Then I heard a noise and looked around at the meadow. But the trees didn't move. So I looked at the cave. There I saw a lady in white robes. She wore a white dress that was belted with a blue sash. On each foot she had a yellow rose the same color as her rosary. […] At the same time I began to say the rosary, while the lady let the pearls slide, but without moving her lips. As soon as I finished the rosary, the apparition disappeared immediately. ”Subsequent interviews, seven in all, led to some additions, as in the minutes of November 20, 1865, although their formulations were repeated word for word. On November 20, 1865 she added: “Elle me fit signe du doigt d'approcher mais je fus saisie, je n'osai pas”; so although the lady gave her a sign, she dared not approach. Only in May 1866 did she add: "J'aperçois la Très Sainte-Vierge". This corresponded to her first statement just as little as the opinion expressed shortly before her death that Maria had blue eyes.

According to Bernadette, on the third apparition, the lady asked her to come to the grotto a fortnight in a row, to go to the priests to have a chapel built there, and asked Bernadette to drink from a spring that was still in use at the time was not recognizable, but came to light after the girl had scratched something on the floor: “I went a fortnight and the lady appeared every day, except on a Monday and Friday. Each time she asked me to remind the priests to build the chapel. Each time she asked me to wash myself in the spring. "

Bernadette reported to the pastor of Saint Pierre in Lourdes, Dominique Peyramale , about "Aqueró" ("that one there"). He instructed her to ask the lady her name. At the 16th apparition on March 25, 1858, the feast of the Annunciation , she is said to have answered the question of who she was with the words "Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou" ("I am the immaculate conception") . When Bernadette told the pastor what the woman had said, Peyramale was amazed, because in his eyes the mother of Jesus had revealed herself. Pope Pius IX had proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary four years earlier . That Bernadette, with her inadequate education and although she had not yet attended communion classes, could have heard of this theological term seemed unlikely to the pastor. This in turn increased the credibility of Bernadette's vision report in his eyes, so that he gave up his initial skepticism and defended the authenticity of the apparitions. The apparitions - eleven in February, five in March, one in April, and one in July - ended on July 16, 1858.

According to Patrick Dondelinger, however, Bernadette Soubirous never referred to her appearance as the Mother of God. When asked by the Jesuit de Langlade, she herself said about this aspect: “I am not saying that I saw the Blessed Virgin, I saw the apparition.” When classifying and interpreting the events surrounding the apparitions of the then 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous comes to the conclusion that the appearance is to be understood as the protagonist's alter ego : "At no point did Bernadette describe her vision as Mother of God, but always only as a lonely young lady who can only become Mother of God through interpretive induction." Soubirous himself compared the appearance to the appearance of a ten-year-old girl named Pailhasson . She was not sure of the exact shape and size of this apparition, as Dondelinger describes: “Sometimes the seer [Bernadette Soubirous] states that her appearance was smaller than herself, then again that she was a little larger, then again, she be no bigger than herself. ” Ruth Harris also emphasizes that, according to Soubirous' descriptions, the apparition did not show any maternal features. Harris contradicts contemporary statements that interpreted the behavior of Bernadette Soubirous during the vision experience as a reflection of a mother-child relationship - with the appearance as an alleged mother figure. Although Bernadette Soubirous referred to the apparition as " jeune fille " (young girl) or " demoiselle " (unmarried woman) in her first descriptions , these names did not appear in the magazine articles; instead the term " dame " (lady) was used there. "Well-meaning interpreters," says Harris, have continuously increased the age of the female appearance.

The local Chronique locale reported in 1858 about "Bernadette Savi". Then “elle prétend avoir des reports divins avec la Vierge, mère de Dieux”, so she pretended to be in divine contact with Mary. Eyewitnesses reported that she had turned pale, her hands trembled, and there were nervous cramps. However, these have given way to a smile. 5000 people crowded around the girl when she prayed. Numerous pilgrims are already coming to Lourdes.

Soubirous was never alone during her visions in the grotto. During the first vision, she was accompanied by her sister and a friend. In the second vision of February 14, 1858, several girls were present, in the third two women from Lourdes, then the mother, the aunt and other "curious women". Several dozen people followed later, then a few hundred. At the 15th vision on March 4, 1858, there were around 7,000 to 8,000 people at the grotto, flanked by a strong contingent of security forces. After the last vision of July 16, 1858, Soubirous went to the grotto several times, but had no further apparitions.

The reports of the apparitions attracted the poor in particular, and they were embedded in the folk culture of the region, as is particularly evident from the statement that Mary spoke in the local dialect. However, members of the wealthy quickly became interested in what was happening, especially since many travelers were in the region. The journalist Louis Veuillot believed the reports as did Madame Bruat, the Crown Prince's governess. The reluctance of the mayor Lacadé, the parish priest Peyramale and the bishop Laurence also disappeared. The government had the closed grotto reopened in June. If you follow Christian Sorrel, you will try to influence the local balance of power in Paris. Despite sarcastic comments in the liberal press, the established church commission of inquiry was allowed to go. It took several years to investigate the events. On February 18, 1862, the responsible local bishop of Tarbes , Bertrand-Sévère Mascarou-Laurence, wrote a pastoral letter which announced the result - and thus the official ecclesiastical reading of the events surrounding Bernadette Soubirous:

“We solemnly declare that Our Lady Immaculate did appear to Bernadette Soubirous on February 11, 1858 and in the following days, a total of eighteen times in the Grotto of Massabielle, near the city of Lourdes. And we declare that the apparition has all the signs of truth, and that the believers are entitled to firmly believe in them. "

Local authorities still dominated the process. The diocese acquired the grotto in 1861. As early as 1864 the grotto was made lockable with bars and a sculpture by Joseph Fabisch materialized the visions. Soubirous never recognized the Virgin Mary in the little woman she had seen. In 1866 the first services were held at the grotto. The construction of the railroad allowed mass pilgrimages for the first time. Now the construction of the basilica over the grotto began. Bernadette Soubirous withdrew from the growing crowds and went to Nevers.

Life after the apparitions

On the mediation of the Bishop of Tarbes, Bernadette was accommodated as a guest in the hospice run by the Sisters of Nevers in Lourdes from 1860, where she temporarily helped in the house and received lessons. There she also became acquainted with the Bishop of Nevers, Théodore-Augustin Forcade, who later expressly recommended her for entry into the Congregation of Sisters and also succeeded in getting the dowry that was actually required to be waived. Bernadette herself had previously considered joining the Carmelites , mainly because of their hidden way of life, but her poor health spoke against the fact that she could have kept the order of the Carmelites for a longer period of time.

Bernadette came on July 7, 1866 as a postulant in the convent of Saint-Gildard the Sisters of Charity in Nevers one, a nurturing and teaching Congregation , where she, a few days later when receiving the robe of the postulants, the religious name Marie Bernarde received. When handing over the robe, Bernadette, at the request of her superiors, had to give the assembled convent and other sisters of the congregation a short oral summary of the events at the grotto. Bernadette first worked in the convent's infirmary and looked after children.

Sr. Marie Bernarde laying out

Already in September of that year she fell seriously ill, which worsened so much that on October 25th, together with the reception of the sacraments , she was allowed to profess in articulo mortis , analogously: the religious vows in the face of death. She recovered, however, and after her recovery and the completion of the novitiate , she made simple profession in the ordinary form on October 30, 1867. Because of the way in which the very first profession of professions was made in the hands of the bishop and the associated insignia of the veil and crucifix of the profession, some of the sisters liked to jokingly refer to Bernadette as a “thief”, but the act took away the fear of her poor health to be released from the novitiate.

In the traditional sending out after taking the first vows, which was also headed by Bishop Forcade himself, Bernadette, unlike the more than forty other new professors, was not sent, but was instead kept in the convent of Saint-Gildard, where she temporarily helped the infirmary , but mainly worked as a sacristan and embroidered parament and altar linen. Sr. Marie Bernarde made perpetual profession on September 22, 1878, just a few months before her death in Saint-Gildard, where she died of tuberculosis at the age of 35 . After entering the monastery, Bernadette never returned to the Massabielle grotto.

Mother Marie-Thérèse Vauzou , her novice master and later long-term superior - whom Bernadette did not like - rejected the interpretation of the apparitions of Soubirous as an authentic supernatural experience and resisted the adoration of Bernadette as well as the opening of a canonization process.

Adoration

Pope Pius XI said Bernadette Soubirous on June 14, 1925 and blessed on December 8, 1933 (the the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception) holy . Her feast day is April 16. St. Bernadette is called upon against illness and poverty and is considered the patron saint of the poor, those people who are ridiculed for their piety, the shepherds and shepherds, and the city of Lourdes.

The date of the canonization was not chosen by chance. The Catholic Church found itself under the pressure of a secular, possibly anti-church republic. This moved the saint to the center of the politics of the Popes from Pius X to Pius XII. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother was placed at the center, as was the emphasis on the wholesome belief in miracles. Only after 1960 did this aspect lose its importance and the original, more spiritually oriented direction came into its own again, according to the historian Christian Sorrel. A Congrès marial national had taken place in Lourdes three years earlier .

The remains of Bernadette were exhumed and inspected several times as part of the beatification process at the instigation of the respective local bishop of Nevers , first on September 22, 1909 in the presence of witnesses, including Bishop Gauthey himself with another cleric, and two doctors at the behest of the bishop , the mayor and his representative, the superior of the monastery, their representative and several craftsmen. At this point in time the body of Sr. Marie Bernardes was described by the examining doctors Jourdan and David as follows: “The skin of the face lay on the bones, and the body was colored brown-black, rigid like parchment and sounded as hollow as cardboard when it was attacked. The pattern of the veins could still be seen on the forearms. Hands and feet were waxen. "

The Grisons forensic pathologist Walter Marty explains the log entries as follows: "This description is almost classical, especially the wood and cardboard-like tone. The fact that the pattern of the veins was still recognizable is explained by the fact that the subcutaneous fat has disappeared. Fat is present in liquid form in our cells and runs out when putrefactive. The brown-black discoloration is found in all so-called lazy corpses, it is due to the breakdown of hemoglobin. Lead-lined coffins are known to prevent decomposition. "

Detail of a painting by Paul Rudloff in the chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, in the Alsace Reichshoffen that Jesus blessing mother, Bernadette Soubirous and Joan of Arc is

The relics of the saints were exhumed and reburied several times, a process that the Catholic Church calls the lifting of the bones . The full body relic of St. Bernadette is one of the bodies of those saints who the Orthodox and Catholic Churches call " incorruptible ". During the inspection of the remains on April 3, 1919, which was also carried out with the assistance of two doctors and even more witnesses than the first time, the doctors expressed their astonishment at the generally still good condition of the body. During the third survey on April 18, 1925, in view of the approaching beatification, some smaller relics were removed, the body was placed in a bronze and glass shrine and on August 25, 1925 in the chapel of the Saint-Gildard monastery in Nevers (today Espace Bernadette Soubirous ) convicted. However, the face and hands were covered with wax masks, which were made from casts and photographs. In addition to the initials ND for “Notre Dame” ( Our Lady ), the shrine bears the inscription “Je ne vous promets pas de vous rendre heureuse en ce monde, mais dans l'autre” (“I do not promise you will be happy in this world to make, but in the other ").

Pope John Paul II visited Lourdes on August 14th and 15th, 2004 as a pilgrim. He did this on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the Virgin Conception as church dogma . In 2008, the 150th anniversary of the apparitions provided the opportunity to hold further celebrations.

In autumn 2018 a reliquary of the saints from Lourdes came to Germany, where it arrived in the pilgrimage site of Kevelaer on September 7th and could then be venerated in several places in Germany for a few days, for example in October 2018 in Berlin, then in Munich, Speyer and Trier.

Historical classification and scientific interpretation

Soubirous is one of a long line of people who have experienced or been claimed to have seen apparitions. In many cases it was about apparitions of the Virgin Mary. This is especially true for the time since the 19th century, when such phenomena were reported in the entire Catholic area. Much research has been carried out into their positioning in the process of extensive social changes in the era of nationalism , but also in the struggle between the increasingly secular state, especially in France, and the Catholic Church. However, this only applies to Europe and America. Apparitions of the Blessed Mother were frequent in Lourdes and the surrounding area. Bernadette Soubirous was familiar with the stories and visited Bétharram, where, according to local tradition, a statue of the Virgin Mary was venerated, which shepherds had found by divine instruction. During the apparitions of Bernadette Soubirous, numerous other children from Lourdes reported that they had similar apparitions to Mary. Peyramale did not initially rule out that these reports were also due to divine influence.

In addition to technical means such as press and telegraph , railroad, radio and later television, the Catholic Church used photography, souvenirs and tourist trails early on to spread its Marian ideas, but above all it was pilgrimage sites and canonizations - the latter are closely related. These mass events - the second half of the 19th century was a first historical epoch shaped by mass culture - could serve as an argument to refute the alleged decline of religious attitudes. However, this could only become an argument at a time when society was primarily made up of the masses, so numbers were of the utmost importance, which gave the masses of people an adequate meaning. With the romantic idea that they represented the actual “people”, one could mobilize religious feelings against the rational thinking of the elites .

The universal church saw itself on the same level as the state, and it itself became a global society that was propagated as ideal. Contrary to the public perception as " anti-progressive ", the church, whether it wanted to or not, also contributed to modernization. The veneration of Mary as a protective woman also offered a cloak against the cold and utilitarian world. Therefore the cult of Mary spoke to many marginalized people . In connection with a cult around the words of the Pope, the strongly growing missionary efforts , Rome hoped that new saints would have an increased effect. For example, some church historians regarded the 19th century as “the century of the Immaculate Conception”.

Therefore, the events of 1858 fell on extremely fertile ground, and they in turn radically changed the forms of Marian worship, the first climax of which was recorded in 1796 in Ancona, Italy . In 1814, a pope supported such a movement for the first time, this time in Savona . Pictures of Mary were printed in enormous quantities, especially in France, where between 1830 and 1840 alone around 100 million pictures of the Notre Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse circulated. The prerequisites were thus given to interpret Soubirous' apparitions as Marian apparitions and at the same time as confirmation of the dogma of 1854. The recourse to the Middle Ages in its structural forms, such as the neo-Gothic , and the medieval-looking statues of Mary, which were set up in numerous places, served to fall back on a pre-revolutionary society perceived as an ideal. So pilgrimages became such demonstrations, although the use of railways, the new mass communication and new ways and means of organizing such large-scale events were the products of modern society of their time.

Marian congresses also led to extremely intense debates, such as the coronation of Mary that began in 1853 , initially as a thank you to the French king for suppressing the revolution in Rome in 1849 . It was only with the first coronation in Lourdes in 1876 that this ceremony also became a mass event. Soubirous was also ideal because, as an innocent country girl, far from the decadence of the city, she could become a symbol of the fight against sin, but also against disease. At the same time, she was able to take account of the development towards a feminization of both denominations , which the veneration of God and his Son was no longer sufficient.

If one follows Christian Sorrel's 2016 article, the facts have been carefully reconstructed by René Laurentin and reinterpreted by Ruth Harris "from an anthropological perspective". These two works are therefore central to the history of reception.

Henri Lasserre, an ultramontane journalist, published an epic report on the religion of the poor under the title Notre-Dame de Lourdes in 1869 . This triggered a first dispute over the interpretation. His opponent was the Jesuit Léonard Cros, who found support from Monsignor Laurence, but also from the local missionaries of Notre-Dame de Garaison. The publication was however by Pope Pius XI. approved. The defeat of France against Prussia in 1870/71, the end of the Papal States and the end of the imperial regime as well as the Paris Commune played an essential role. Politically marginalized, the church tried for its part through mass demonstrations to show that "faith and hope" existed. This gave Lourdes a central role, because it was there that the first of these major events took place, which attracted 60,000 pilgrims. The emblems of the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were placed in the basilica, completed in 1871, along with French flags. It should be suggested that revolutionary France would have hope when it turned back to God. This also served the concentration on the sick, for whom special trains were soon set up. In 1880 almost a thousand sick people were brought in by train. The source, to which Soubirous had never assigned healing power, now came to the center of the hope for healing. This required houses for the sick, access rituals and carers, as well as a new procession that followed the one from 1872 in 1888. New rituals, such as the coronation of the statue of the Virgin (1876), the 25th and 50th anniversaries of her apparition, and yes, the 25th anniversary of the National Pilgrimage in 1897, gave rise to an even greater influx of pilgrims.

The more sick people made a pilgrimage to Lourdes, the more the question of miraculous healing came to the fore. Many Italians made pilgrimages to Lourdes, and Father Gemelli, a doctor and Franciscan converted to Catholicism, defended the concept of miracles against his former members of the Associazione sanitaria milanese from 1908 . He was then expelled from this Milanese association in 1911. As early as 1904, the numerous reports of miraculous healings caused the Pope, in the presence of 400 Catholic doctors, to demand more detailed examinations from the French bishops. In the course of this, 33 miraculous healings were recognized in the years from 1908 to 1913, which meant something like spontaneous healings of diseases that were previously incurable through medicine. But slowly the number of these recognized healings decreased from 22 between 1946 and 1969 to only seven between 1970 and 2013. The number of pilgrims rose sharply after the world wars. In 1989 around 5 million pilgrims visited Lourdes, after 2000 it was mostly around 6 million a year. After 1960, the search for the original spiritual message came to the fore again, but the interpretations of the church, which sees itself on the defensive against a rapidly changing society, receded. At the same time, Soubirous' biography came to the fore again, as did the interpretation of its phenomena with the advanced means of non-historical sciences.

Accordingly, Patrick Dondelinger dedicates himself less to a historical classification than to the attempt to use today's terminology to get closer to the psychological processes behind the phenomena. For him, Soubirous' visions served on the one hand the psychologically comprehensible inner conflict management, on the other hand they fulfilled a group dynamic function: “So Bernadette's hallucinations in all their group dynamic ritualization are much less symptom than therapy, in which the girl does not only heal herself in the sense of a can experience better, more viable and lasting adaptation to reality - [...] but can also motivate third parties for a process of transformation, the most spectacular embodiment of which is the so-called miracle healings, which were still at the grotto during the time of the apparition - but already disconnected from the presence of Bernadette occur."

Literary-artistic reception

At the end of the 19th century, the interpretations were diametrically opposed, especially since young psychology was now also devoting itself to the case of the young visionary, albeit not as a science but mediated through literary works. The literary work had a considerable influence on the reception in the public, ultimately also in historiography.

In 1894, Émile Zola , in his book Lourdes (part of the Trois Villes novel cycle ), argued that Abbé Ader suggested the visions to Bernadette Soubirous: “So where was the driving force, the lesson learned? It was nothing other than the childhood spent in Bartrès, the first lessons from the Abbé Ader, perhaps conversations, religious ceremonies in honor of the new dogma or a medal such as had been widely distributed. ”Abbé Ader, the parish administrator of Bartrès went to the Benedictines of La Pierre-qui-Vire after New Year 1858, the year of the apparitions. Bernadette had not been allowed to attend the catechism lessons in Bartres because of her duties as a shepherdess. Dondelinger assumes that the catechist Ader “must have made a great impression on Bernadette”. Taking into account the details of the various visions, Dondelinger concludes: “By not executing the reflexively applied sign of the cross to scare away her vision, but instead imitating the edifying cross sign that her visionary superiors use, Bernadette shows herself to be an eager student even in the changed state of consciousness of the Abbé Ader. "

Kurt Tucholsky argued similarly to Zola . In his travel picture A Book of the Pyrenees he dedicated a chapter to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes, which he had visited on his Pyrenees trip in 1925, and in the subchapter Sixty-Seven Years he also went into Bernadette Soubirous: “In all of this, little Bernadette has been thought of as a modest, well-behaved, To think weak child who didn’t care about it. She had a difficult situation: the clergyman did not want to approach, the police threatened to lock her up if this nonsense did not stop, and the village demanded his miracles. "He saw the apparitions and their reception in their social environment skeptically:" [...] after With every hallucination the audience grew larger, the belief stronger, the legendary formation wilder. ”He did not accept the argument that Soubirous had not yet been able to know the dogma of the immaculate conception:“ One will now understand why the Bernadette tracts feared about it are silent that the dogma had already existed for three years, proclaimed ex cathedra. So it was not only possible, but highly likely, that the child had picked up the phrase from the priests without understanding. And you know how Latin affects those who don't understand it. "

Franz Werfel wrote the novel Das Lied von Bernadette in 1941 , which also gives a clear picture of the development of Lourdes into a place of pilgrimage. He had fled to Lourdes from Nazi Germany , where he had made a vow that he would write down the history of Bernadette if he survived the Nazi persecution. In the foreword he wrote that he “dared to sing the song of Bernadette, although I am not a Catholic but a Jew. The courage for this undertaking gave me a much older and much more unconscious vow. In the days in which I wrote my first verses, I had sworn to myself that I would always and everywhere glorify the divine mystery and human holiness through my writings - regardless of the age that turned away from these ultimate values ​​with ridicule, anger and indifference of our life".

In 1959, Bayerischer Rundfunk produced The Song of Bernadette as a radio play based on Werfel's novel . Two other radio versions were produced in 1948 and 1954, each as a two-part. The life of Bernadette as well as Werfel's The Song of Bernadette have also been filmed several times. The 1943 film adaptation of the same name by director Henry King with Jennifer Jones as Bernadette won several Academy Awards. It tells how her siblings left the weak Bernadette behind by a river so that she wouldn't catch a cold when crossing the river. In a grotto, a female saint appears to her, who asks her to pray the rosary with her. Later she gives her the task of looking for a spring whose water seems to have healing properties. Now the villagers fear for the reputation of their place. The representatives of the church also keep a low profile at first, Bernadette is interrogated. She should take back her statements, but she sticks to her statement, which she repeats over and over again. When Lourdes becomes a huge place of pilgrimage, Bernadette goes to a monastery. There she is humiliated by her novice teacher and dies young of bone tuberculosis.

Further films are u. a. the Spanish film Aquella joven de blanco by León Klimovsky from 1965, the two French films Bernadette - The Miracle of Lourdes (1988) with Sydney Penny in the leading role, and La Passion de Bernadette (1989) by Jean Delannoy with the same eponymous heroine, and the two-part Bernadette von Lourdes (2000) by Lodovico Gasparini . Bernadette is played here by Angéle Osinsky. In 2011 Je m'appelle Bernadette was created with Katia Cuq in the title role. The focus is on the one hand on the girl's personality, who has to assert herself against her distrustful and envious surroundings despite her weakness, inexperience and youth, and on the other hand her belief, which is not theologically but intuitively supported. This experience is ultimately associated with the spiritual search of present individuals and belief in healing miracles.

literature

Specialist literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Bernadette Soubirous. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 525-526.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (Eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
  • Patrick Dondelinger : The visions of Bernadette Soubirous and the beginning of the miraculous healings in Lourdes. Pustet, Regensburg 2003, ISBN 3-7917-1852-5 .
  • Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visions and miracles. Verl.-Gemeinschaft Topos plus, Kevelaer 2007, ISBN 978-3-8367-0650-6 .
  • Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body And Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999.
  • Irmgard Jehle: Bernadette and the miracle of Lourdes , Herder, Freiburg 2007.
  • René Laurentin: Lourdes. Histoire authentique des apparitions, 6 volumes, Paris 1961–1964, Vol. 1, Paris 1961.
  • Patricia A. McEachern: A Holy Life. The Writings of St. Bernadette , PhD, 2005, Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010.

Older works

  • Jean B. Estrade: Bernadette, the gifted of Lourdes. Johannes, Leutesdorf am Rhein 2000, 14th edition, ISBN 3-7794-1191-1 (in an older edition: Bernadette, the gifted woman from Lourdes, as I experienced her ). French original: J.-B. Estrade: Les apparitions de Lourdes. Souvenirs intimes d'un témoin (German about: The apparitions of Lourdes: Intimate memories of a witness. ) A. Mame et fils, Tours 1899. Online on Gallica
  • Andre Ravier, Helmuth Nils Loose : Bernadette Soubirous. A saint of France, Europe and the world , Herder, Freiburg 1979, ISBN 3-451-18309-9 .

Literary receptions

Web links

Commons : Bernadette Soubirous  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Bernadou, Sylvaine Guinle-Lorinet: Une webcam à la grotte: Le sanctuaire marial de Lourdes et l'introduction des tnic , in: tic & société 9 (2015).
  2. ^ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visions and Miracles , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 23.
  3. ↑ Daniel Lebigre: Le coup de Lourdes , Société des Ecrivains, Paris 2011, p 65th
  4. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999, p. 44 f.
  5. ↑ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous: Visionen und Wunder , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 25.
  6. ↑ a b Patrick Dondelinger (2007). Bernadette Soubirous: Visions and Miracles . Topos, Kevelaer, p. 24 f.
  7. ↑ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous: Visions and Miracles , Topos: Kevelaer 2007, p. 24.
  8. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999, p. 46.
  9. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999, p. 46.
  10. ^ René Laurentin: Lourdes. Histoire authentique des apparitions , 6 volumes, Paris 1961–1964, Vol. 1, Paris 1961, p. 103.
  11. ↑ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous: Visionen und Wunder , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 28.
  12. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999, p. 72 names the height of Soubirous at 1.40 m. "By her account, the figure was very small, no bigger than her own diminutive one meter forty (small even by the standards of this malnourished region) and, according to early interviews, perhaps even shorter. the apparition] very small, no bigger than her own tiny four feet (small, even given this malnourished region) and perhaps even shorter after early interviews.) "Harris's source is René Laurentin (1961-64), Lourdes: Histoire authentique des apparitions, Vol. 3, p. 151, referring to Dr. Balencie (1879) relates. The information would therefore be a measurement in the year Bernadette Soubirous died before or after her death. Harris also writes that when Soubirous was about 15 years old, he looked no more than eleven (p. 74).
  13. ↑ René Laurentin: The life of Bernadette. The Saint of Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, p. 25 f.
  14. ↑ From a letter to P. Gondrand , in: Lectionary for the Book of Hours, first year series I / 2 Fastenzeit , Herder Verlag, 2005, p. 206 f., Feast of Our Lady in Lourdes , based on: Epistula ad P. Gondrand (1861) : A. Ravier, Les écrits de sainte Bernadette (Paris 1961) , 55ff. in: Liturgia horarum Vol. III , Editio typica, Rome 1977, p. 1129 f. The wording: “J'entends une rumeur, je me tourne du côté de la prairie, je vis que les arbres ne se remuaient pas du tout. Je continuai à me déchausser, j'entends la même rumeur, je levais la tête en regardant la grotte, je vis une dame habillée de blanc, elle avait une robe blanche et une ceinture bleue et une rose jaune sur chaque pied, couleur de la chaîne de son chapelet. ”(May 28, 1861).
  15. ↑ Jean Eparvier, Marc Hérissé: Le dossier des miracles , Hachette, Paris 1967th
  16. ↑ From a letter to P. Gondrand , in: Lectionary for the Book of Hours, first year series I / 2 Fastenzeit , Herder Verlag, 2005, p. 206 f., Feast of Our Lady in Lourdes , based on: Epistula ad P. Gondrand (1861) : A. Ravier, Les écrits de sainte Bernadette (Paris 1961) , 55ff. in: Liturgia horarum , Vol. III, Editio typica, Rome 1977, p. 1129 f.
  17. ^ René Laurentin, Bernard Billet (Ed.): Lourdes. Documents authentiques , P. Lethielleux, Paris 1957-1966, Vol. 7, p. 274; quoted after Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visions and Miracles , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 87 f.
  18. ^ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visionen und Wunder , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 88. On the topos of the appearance as “alter ego” cf. P. 89.
  19. ^ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visions and Miracles , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 91.
  20. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999, p. 70: "Bernadette's description had no maternal qualities at all."
  21. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin, London 1999, p. 72
  22. ^ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visionen und Wunder , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, pp. 29–54.
  23. ^ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visions and Miracles , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 54.
  24. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p . 57–82, here: p. 59.
  25. ↑ The French text can be found in the Journal des débats politiques et littéraires of February 19, 1862, pp. 1–2, online .
  26. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p . 57–82, here: p. 59.
  27. ↑ René Laurentin : The life of Bernadette. The Saint of Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd ed. 1980, p. 115.
  28. ↑ René Laurentin: The life of Bernadette. Die Heilige von Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, p. 134ff.
  29. ↑ René Laurentin: The life of Bernadette. Die Heilige von Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, p. 152.
  30. ↑ René Laurentin: The life of Bernadette. Die Heilige von Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, p. 156ff.
  31. ^ René Laurentin: Bernadette of Lourdes. A life based on authenticated documents , Barton, Longman and Todd, 1998, p. 159.
  32. ↑ René Laurentin, The Life of Bernadette - The Saints of Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, pp. 159f.
  33. ^ René Laurentin: Bernadette of Lourdes. A life based on authenticated documents , Darton, Longman and Todd, 1998, p. 159.
  34. ↑ René Laurentin: The life of Bernadette. The Saint of Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd ed. 1980, p. 173.
  35. ^ François Trochu: St. Bernadette Soubirous: 1844–1879 , TAN Books, 1957, pp. 258ff., P. 400.
  36. ^ Hugh Ross Williamson: The challenge of Bernadette , Gracewing Publishing, 2006, pp. 78ff.
  37. ^ Henri Petitot OP: The true story of Bernadette , Newman Press, 1950.
  38. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p 57-82.
  39. ↑ Congrès marial national de Lourdes, 23–27 June 1930 , Imprimerie de la Grotte, Lourdes 1931.
  40. ↑ a b www.profil.at
  41. ↑ https://www.erzbistum-koeln.de/news/Reliquien-der-heiligen-Bernadette-aus-Lourdes-kommen-nach-Koeln/
  42. ↑ Relics of Saint Bernadette from Lourdes come to Kevelaer , website of the Kleve district dean's office.
  43. ↑ domradio.de: Bernadette relic comes to Berlin , October 3, 2018.
  44. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin, London 1999, p. 36 ff.
  45. ↑ Ruth Harris: Lourdes. Body and Spirit in the Secular Age , Penguin, London 1999, p. 92.
  46. ↑ This overview is based on Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (Ed.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Springer, 2016; therein: Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , pp. 57–82.
  47. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p 57-82.
  48. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p 57–82, here: p. 59 f.
  49. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p 57–82, here: pp. 63–65.
  50. ↑ Christian Sorrel: Politics of the Sacred: Lourdes, France, and Rome , in: Roberto Di Stefano, Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds.): Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America , Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p 72.
  51. ↑ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous: Visionen und Wunder , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 154.
  52. ↑ Emile Zola: Lourdes , Hofenberg 2017 (reprint of the 1894 edition), p. 90 . See also Lourdes: The miracle of Dr. Dozous . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1956, p. 44-49 ( Online - May 2, 1956 ).
  53. ↑ René Laurentin: The life of Bernadette. The Saint of Lourdes , Patmos-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, p. 33.
  54. ^ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous. Visions and Miracles , Topos, Kevelaer 2007, p. 101.
  55. ↑ Patrick Dondelinger: Bernadette Soubirous: Visions and Miracles , Topos, Kevelaer, p. 101 f.
  56. ↑ Kurt Tucholsky: When one goes on a journey. Curiosities and satiricals , reprint Altenmünster 2015, p. 162.
  57. ↑ Kurt Tucholsky: When one goes on a journey. Curiosities and satiricals , reprint Altenmünster 2015, p. 163.
  58. ↑ ibid., Los Angeles 1941, in: GB Fischer & Co., 1953, Frankfurt am Main, p. 8; see. the online version on Projekt Gutenberg.
personal data
SURNAME Soubirous, Bernadette
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soubirous, Marie Bernarde (religious name); Sobeirons, Maria Bernada (Occitan); Soubirous, Maria Bernadette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French saint
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Lourdes
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1879
Place of death Nevers on the Loire