On January the 7th 1844 Bernadette Soubirous was born, her mother named Louise Casterot and father Francois Soubirious. On the 9th of January Bernadette gets Baptized Marie Bernarde.
November 1844
Bernadette was sent away to be fostered, Bernadettes mother could no longer produce milk. Bernadette was fostered by Maria Lagues, who fostered her child and was still able to Brest feed.
April 1846
Bernadette returns to Lourdes (Boly Mill) ready to be weaned. Bernadette had a very loving family and enjoyed playing with her sister Toinette. She remains in the Boly mill until June 1854 when they moved to Laborde house due to financial hardship.
Autumn 1855
Cholera brakes out in Lourdes, Bernadette is 11 years l, and unfortunately become ill with Cholera, she survives Cholera but develops Asthma and the complicated by tuberculosis of the bone, affecting her legs which lead to her death at 35.
November 1856
Louise mother dies of Cholera and she inherits 900 franks, a good amount n those days. Francois invests everything in Sarrabeyr house mill hoping to improve his families file. Unfortunately their misfortune never ceases and it turns in to a failure. Francois loses everything and they return back to Lourdes. Their family destitute they find shelter at the Cachot an disused dungeon room which his cousin let m use. Bernadettes family hits rock bottom
September 1857
Marie Lagues, hires Bernadette as a shepherdess and a domestic worker and to look after a tow year old Jean she moves to Bartres and finds life heard. it was a period of very hard work and solitude, humiliation and tears
January 21,1858
Bernadette sends a pleading message to her parents "beg them to fetch me as soon as possible" she returns home on the 21st of January to poverty and the dungeon like Cachot. But is happy to be back in family life.
February 11 1858
This is the date of the first apparition, while collecting firewood with her sister, (for more information on the apparition please look a the apparitions information page.
June 3, 1858
Is the feast day of Courpus Christ and Bernadette receives her first Holy Communion in the chapel of Lourdes Hospice where she is being treated for asthma and Tuberculosis. Bernadette is 14 years old
15th July 1860
Bernadette is back in the hospice of Lourdes dur to another asthma attack. Bernadette remains in the hospice for 6 years until she departs for the convent in nerves.
19th My 1866
The construction of the Chapel requested by Our Lady to Bernadette begins which postpones Bernadettes departure to Nervers
3rd July 1866
Bernadette becomes a nun and joins the sisters of charity in Nervers. Before leaving dressed as a nun she secretly visits the grotto for the very last time
7th July 1866
Bernadette enters the convent of Saint Gildard, but finds it difficult to settle in. She meets with resistance and humiliation both on the part of the nuns and the Mother Mistress, Sister M.Therese Vauzou
28th March 1878
Bernadette is ill and suffering once again while she lies on her sick bed struggling to breath and to comprehend why she has to suffer so much. Bernadette tells sister Lentine " I am ground like a grain wheat"
16th April 1876 The Death of Bernadette
Stretched out in an armchair ti aid breathing, she slips away and dies at 3.pm. Asthma and tuberculosis of the bones of her legs have wasted her away at 35. In one day she summerizes her whole life and mission on a piece of paper.
"To obey is to love! to suffer in silence for christ id joy! to love sincerely is to give everything, even grief"
8th December 1933
Pope Pius proclaims Bernadette a Saint. saint Bernadettes body today remains in a perfect state intact and covered by a thin layer of was for preservation. Her body rests inside a bronze crystal casket
