"My duty is to be sick" -St Bernadette

"You must receive God well; give Him a loving welcome, for then He has to pay us rent." 

  - St Bernadette

Born in a converted jail cell

St Bernadette Soubirous entered the world in 1844 as the oldest of 6. Her childhood unfolded in tight, airless rooms of poverty with constant hunger, illness and little hope. The family’s cold stone walls shaped the contours of her life. Yet poverty did not harden but refined her. In the hidden corners of deprivation, she learned humility, patience and the quiet endurance that was a rich soil of her sanctity.

A child of the fields

From age 12-14, St Bernadette was hired out as a servant to support her struggling family. Between chores, she tended sheep in the Pyrenees. With a rosary in her pocket and a cough in her chest, her asthma (early TB?) made every breath laborious. Her lack of education made her humble. But the fields taught her something no classroom could: the contemplative rhythm of silence. These early years formed her soul in simplicity. She was not strong, learned nor socially important. But she was receptive and open to God in a way that only the humble understand.

Heaven stoops to earth

On 11 February 1858, St Bernadette, her sister and a friend went to gather firewood near the grotto of Massabielle. There, in the stillness, she saw a “small young Lady” dressed in white, holding a rosary of light. Over 5 months, she received 18 apparitions. The Lady prayed with her, entrusted her with messages, asked for penance and led her to a hidden spring—which became a river of healing for the world. St Bernadette never embellished her story. She never sought attention. She simply repeated what she saw and heard, with the honesty of a child who had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

A spring of mud 

When the Lady asked her to dig in the dirt and drink from the mud, St Bernadette obeyed. That trickle became a spring, growing into a fountain of miracles. Since 1858, over 200 million pilgrims have visited Lourdes, seeking healing of body, mind and soul. The Lourdes' spring is more than water. It is a sign of faith that God brings life from barren places, hope from poverty, and a true flame of light from the hands of a humble girl.

The Nevers school of suffering

After the apparitions, Bernadette moved in with the sisters of Nevers. There she learned to read and write, tend the sick, and live among the poor. At age 22, the sisters admitted her into their order—not because she was strong or gifted, but because she was sick and indigent. Her life in the convent was not easy. She was often misunderstood, mistreated, and ill. Yet she embraced her suffering serenely, which confused those around her. She once said, “My duty is to be sick.” Her holiness was not in visions but in fidelity; not in miracles, but in surrender.

A prayer on her lips

St Bernadette’s health deteriorated as TB ravaged her lungs. Yet she continued to serve, pray and love. She died at 35, whispering a final prayer through Mother Mary who had come to the grotto. Her body, later found incorrupt (now preserved in wax) remains a quiet testimony to the purity of her life and the tenderness that God has for the humble.

 
Conclusion: St Bernadette offers us a spirituality that is beautifully accessible.

• Humility — Stop striving for importance and instead become available to God.

• Simplicity — Holiness is clarity, not complexity.

• Compassion for the sick — Her years in service, call us to tend the sick and suffering.

• Honesty and Obedience — She shows how to witness without embellishment, to speak truth without fear.

• Marian Trust — She urges us to allow Mother Mary to lead us gently toward Christ.

To mimic St Bernadette, is to trust that God sees the small. She demonstrates how hearts can become little grottoes where grace breaks forth. With her service to God, let us ask along with her in every season of life: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” St Bernadette was canonized 8 December 1933 by Pope Pius XI. Her feast day is 4/16, her heavenly birthdate. 

Source: 

Calendar of Saints | April 16

Congregation of Nevers | Official Site