Bernadette, chosen by God

sister Marzia Ceschia

Far removed from the models of our time, perhaps - precisely because of this - unsettling and fascinating: Bernadette Soubirous (1844–1879), the Visionary of Lourdes, draws us in through the Gospel message that her short life was able to embody. We do not wish to dwell on the miracle itself, but rather to reflect on the events that were immediately associated with her experience and on her total openness and trust in a divine plan that guides history. Bernadette was one of the most insignificant figures of her time; she was poor in every sense: the daughter of François and Louise Castérot, she was born on 7 January 1844 into a family of millers who had fallen into such debt that they had to leave their mill and become labourers, and were forced to live in a dilapidated shack. Bernadette was frail from an early age. She contracted cholera, and she was left with chronic asthma. She was practically illiterate, only occasionally attending school at the hospice in Lourdes, where education was provided for poor girls by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. She was only fourteen years old when the Virgin appeared to her for the first time on…