Bartrès and Bernadette

Bartres is a commune in the department of Hautes-Pyrenees in southwestern France. Located about three kilometers from Lourdes, it is a small village with 519 inhabitants (as of 1st January 2016). Bartres is well-known to Catholic pilgrims because this place is associated with the life of St. Bernadette Soubirous who lived for two specific periods of her life. Her first stay in Bartres was about sixteen months, from November 1844 to April 1, 1846. When Bernadette was 10 months old, she was sent there to be fostered by Marie Lagues, a friend of Louise Casterot, Bernadette's mother who could not breastfeed her due to an accident with a candle which burnt her breast. Marie Lagues had just lost her 13-day-old baby and offered to be Bernadette's wet nurse. Bernadette was sent to Bartres by Bernade Casterot, her aunt and godmother. 

Bernadette returned to Bartres in September 1857 when she was 13 to help her former wet nurse, Marie Lague, who needed someone to look after her two-year-old Jean and tend the flock. Bernadette's father, Francois, was without a permanent job with a wife and four children to feed. The Soubirous family was reduced to the direst poverty and had to take shelter in the Cachot (which was formerly a prison cell) where hunger was a daily reality.

Life in Bartres was unremittingly harsh as Bernadette had to do everything, from a shepherdess to maid in the Burg House as well as taking care of little Jean. Marie Lagues was not only very strict but also extremely frugal. Meat was a special occasion food and she only got the chance to taste it at Easter, Christmas and a few other festive days. As for the rest of the time, she had to be contented with maize porridge even though she did not like it.

Bernadette still could not read or write and Marie Lagues tried to teach her the Catechism in the evenings in order to prepare her for Holy Communion. However, she found it very difficult due to the lack of time and her limited learning abilities. She once said to the parish priest in Bartres that it was easier to put the Catechism book in her head than learning Catechism. One day, while tending the flock, she met a friend from Lourdes to whom she entrusted this message" "Tell my parents that I'm tired of being in Bartres. I want to return to Lourdes."

Hardship, loneliness, homesickness, and the wish to prepare herself for Holy Communion induced Bernadette to return to her family in Lourdes on 21 January 1858, to their dwelling place in the Cachot. Cramped in the dark, damp, narrow and smelly dungeon with her family, her life was plagued with extreme poverty. However, on 11 February 1858, Our Lady first appeared to her at the Grotto of Massabielle and the rest was history.

PLACES TO VISIT IN BARTRES

• The sheepfold or shepherd's hut belonged to Marie Lagues where Bernadette looked after the sheep. It has been preserved in its original condition.
• Burg House (the wet nurse's house) which is located in the village itself and in this beautiful farmhouse Bernadette had lived, worked and suffered. This building has been significantly modernized, having been restored after a fire. Only the ground floor kitchen remains intact. 
• The Church of St. John the Baptist which dates back to the end of  the 14th century and is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Bernadette used to pray and attend mass there. It has a single nave. Behind the altar which dates from the 17th Century is a triptych depicting three main events in the life of St. John the Baptist, namely the baptism of Jesus, the visitation, and the martyrdom of the baptist.
• The wet-nurse's tomb in the churchyard, to the right of the entrance.

Bartres is a wonderful place to visit because of its simplicity and peacefulness. It has an atmosphere filled with memories and emotions which reminds us of Bernadette, the humble and poor shepherdess of Bartres, who was once alive and walking around the streets in Bartres surrounded by greenery and an abundance of nature.


References:
1.  Lourdes by Antonio Bernardo. Doucet Publications.
2.  Bernadette Recounts Her Apparitions by Antonio Bernardo. Doucet Publications.

Lourdes by Antonio Bernardo is a very interesting book that gives a detailed account of Lourdes and the life of Bernadette.

 Bernadette Recounts Her Apparitions by Antonio Bernardo is one of the most authentic and vivid account of the apparitions in Lourdes by Bernadette herself.