Saint Bernadette

Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes on 7 January 1844 into a family of millers. She was the eldest daughter of François Soubirous and Louise Castérot. Bernadette had a sister: Marie Antoinette and three brothers: Jean-Marie, Justin and Bernard-Pierre. Bernadette was in poor health, she suffered from a stomach ache and had caught the cholera epidemic. She was one of the children who could neither read nor write. She was partially educated in a class run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. It was then that the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary began... February 11, 1858, at the Grotto of Massabielle.