CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN LOURDES

The Statue of Our Lady within the Rock Cave at Massabielle in Lourdes

Within the rock cave at Massabielle, Lourdes, the Virgin Mary appeared on 18 occasions to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous and the first healings in Lourdes occurred during these apparitions. The grotto of apparitions has since become one of the most visited shrines in the world. Millions of pilgrims travel to Lourdes every year to visit the grotto in honor of the Marian apparitions. For the sick pilgrims,  Lourdes is a place of hope for miraculous cures as it is believed that the spring water from the grotto has miraculous healing properties. Although there are more than 8000 miraculous healings attributed to the Lourdes shrine since 1858, only 67 cases (as of 2007) have been officially acknowledged by the Catholic Church. Bernadette was canonized as a saint by Pope Piux XI in 1933. To find out more about the life of Saint Bernadette, please read Bartrès and Bernadette, The Cachot, The Passion of Bernadette, and The Message of Lourdes. In this article, I would like to share a chronology of the events that are related to the apparitions in Lourdes.

1.  January 7, 1844
Bernadette was born at Boly Mill. She was the eldest child of the miller, Francois Soubirous and his wife, Louise Casterot

2.  January 9, 1844
Bernadette was baptized at the Church of Saint Peter in Lourdes on the day of her parents' first wedding anniversary.

3.  November 1844
When Bernadette was ten months old, she was taken to Bartres to be fostered by her wet-nurse, Marie Lagues, because her mother could not breastfeed her due to an accident with with a candle.

4.  June 24, 1854
The Soubirous family had to leave Boly Mill because they had no money to pay rent.

5.  Autumn 1855
The cholera epidemic broke out in Lourdes and caused 38 deaths. Bernadette almost died from this potentially fatal disease.

6.  Winter 1855
Bernadette was sent to work at Bernarde Casterot's house. Bernarde Casterot was her mother's sister and her godmother.

7.  March 27, 1857
Francois Soubirous (Bernadette's father) was accused of stealing two sacks of flour from the baker and was imprisoned.

8.  September 1857
Bernadette was sent to Bartres as a farm girl to help her former wet nurse, Marie Lagues, so that her family would have one less mouth to feed.

9.  January 21, 1858
Bernadette returned to Lourdes and reunited with her family in the Cachot. She was glad to be home even though the family had fallen on hard times and was suffering from poverty and hunger.

10.  February 11, 1858
Our Lady's first apparition to Bernadette at the grotto of Massabielle.

11.  February 21, 1858
Bernadette was interrogated by Police Commissioner Domenique Jacomet. He was suspicious of the apparitions and was convinced that Bernadette had hallucinations. Bernadette, however, remained calm and confident throughout the interrogation despite his attempts to trick her into changing her story..

12.  February 24, 1858
Bernadette was interrogated by the Public Prosecutor of Lourdes, Jacques Vital Dutour. Like Police Commissioner Jacomet, he believed that Bernadette was suffering from hallucinations.

13.  March 2, 1858
Bernadette approached the parish priest, Father Peyramale, to tell him that the Lady requested a chapel to be built at the grotto.

14.  March 25, 1858
After the 16th apparition, Bernadette told the parish priest, Father Peyramale, the Lady's name. According to Bernadette, the lady said that she was the Immaculate Conception.

15.  April 27, 1858
Bernadette was examined by three physicians for her possible admission to a mental hospital. However, they found that she was mentally and physically sound.

16.  June 3, 1858
Bernadette celebrated her First Holy Communion on the Feast of Corpus Domini in the chapel of the Lourdes Hospice.

17.  June 10, 1858
The grotto was closed to the public and all public access to the Massabielle area was forbidden.

18.  July 28, 1858
Monsignor Laurence, the Bishop of Lourdes, set up a Canonical Investigation Board to verify the authenticity and supernatural nature of the apparitions.

19.  October 5, 1858
Napoleon III ordered the grotto to be reopened, thanks to the intervention of his wife, Empress Eugenie.

20.  July 15, 1860
Bernadette was admitted to the hospice of Lourdes operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers following an attack of asthma.

21.  January 18, 1862
The bishop of Tarbes, Bertrand-Severe Laurence, declared that the apparitions in Lourdes were worthy of the assent and recognized the apparitions as being genuine and of a supernatural nature.

22  April 4, 1864
The Immaculate Conception statue was placed in the grotto in the presence of 20000 pilgrims but Bernadette was too ill to attend. The statue was a gift from the Lacour sisters and created by Joseph-Hugues Fabisch, a French sculptor and professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

23.  May 19, 1866
The inauguration of The Crypt at Massabielle in the presence of Bernadette.

24.  July 4, 1866
Bernadette left Lourdes forever for Saint Gildard Convent in Nevers. She was to become a nun under the order of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers.

25.  July 7, 1866
Bernadette arrived at the Sisters of Charity Convent in Nevers.

26.  December 8, 1866
Bernadette's mother, Louise Casterot, passed away at the age of 41.

27.  October 30, 1867
Bernadette took her religious vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and charity. .

28.  March 4, 1871
Bernadette's father, Francois Soubirous, passed away at the age of 63.

29.  August 28, 1872
First torchlight procession at the grotto of apparitions.

30.  July 2, 1876
The inauguration and consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

31.  September 8, 1877
The Parish Priest of Lourdes, Father Peyramale, passed away at the age of 66.

32.  March 28, 1878
Bernadette's condition deteriorated and the Extreme Unction was administered to her for the fourth time.

33.  September 22, 1878
Bernadette made her perpetual profession of faith in the convent's chapel. That was also the time she had to endure the worst sufferings in her life. He pulmonary tuberculosis had developed into tuberculosis of the knee with cavities on the bone.

34.  April 16, 1879
Bernadette passed away peacefully at 3 p.m., the time of Jesus' death. She was 35 years old.

35.  August 22, 1887
The first Eucharistic procession in Lourdes in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. "Go and tell the priests to come here in procession," that was what the Virgin Mary said to Bernadette during the thirteenth apparition. At 5.00 p.m. everyday, from April to October, pilgrims can gather for the procession which begins on the prairie of the sanctuary and ends in the Basilica of Saint Pius X.

36.  October 6, 1901
The inauguration and consecration of the Rosary Basilica by Cardinal Langenieux. The Rosary Basilica was designed by the architect, Leopold Hardy, and was completed in 1899.

37.  September 22, 1909
30 years after her death, Bernadette's body was exhumed for the first time as part of the procedure for canonization. It was found to be well-preserved and incorrupt.

38.  September 14, 1912
Inauguration of the Way of the Cross or Stations of the Cross around the hill in Lourdes.

39.  August 13, 1913
Pope Pius X signed the decree for the introduction of Bernadette's cause for canonization and thus the procedure for Bernadette's canonization began.

40.  April 3, 1919
The second exhumation of Bernadette's body in the presence of Bishop Chatelus of Nevers.

41.  April 18, 1925
The third and final exhumation of Bernadette's body. Her body was found to be in a relatively good state of preservation as there was no smell of body decomposition and her internal organs were in perfect condition.

42.  June 14, 1925
Pope Pius XI proclaimed the beatification of Bernadette, the poor shepherdess, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared 18 times.

43.  July 18, 1925
Bernadette's body was laid in a bronze and crystal casket and placed in the chapel of Saint Gildard's Convent in Nevers.

44.  December 8, 1933
Pope Pius XI declared Bernadette a saint of the Catholic Church. Her feast day is celebrated on 16 April.

45.  November 11, 1948
The Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Monseigneur Pierre-Marie Theas, authorized work on the layout of the spring at the back of the grotto.

46.  Winter 1954
The construction of the new baths near the grotto began. "Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there." These were the words of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette that inspired the construction of the baths.

47.  February 11, 1958
The centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Bernadette & the consecration and inauguration of the Basilica of Saint Pius X.

48.  July 16-23, 1981
The first International Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes.

49.  August 14-15, 1983
The pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Lourdes.

50.  March 25, 1988
The Bishop of Lourdes, Monsignor Henri Donze, inaugurated and consecrated the Saint Bernadette Center of Worship, the fifth church in Lourdes.

51.  1995
The inauguration of the Adoration Chapel next to the Saint Bernadette Center of Worship.

52.  April 7, 1997
The inauguration of the Accueil Notre Dame for sick and handicapped pilgrims.

53.  August 14-15, 2004
The second pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Lourdes on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception

54.  September 13-15, 2008
The pilgrimage of Pope Benedict XVI to Lourdes on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette.


Thanks for reading. You may also like to read LOURDES: MIRACLES AND THE MIRACULOUSLY HEALED and Lourdes: The Grotto of Massabielle. To view the content page of this blog, please click here.



References:
1.  Lourdes & Bernadette by Antonio Bernardo. Publisher "il Calamo".
2.  Lourdes by Antonio Bernardo. Doucet Publications, Lourdes.
3.  Bernadette Recounts Her Apparitions by Antonio Bernardo. Doucet Publications, Lourdes.