French saint, born in Lourdes in the French
Pyrenees. In Feb 1858 she had a vision of
the Virgin Mary in a grotto, and it became
a centre of pilgrimage. Many sick people
who were dipped in the water of a
spring there were said to have been cured.
Feast day 16 Apr. The grotto of Massabielle
was opened to the public by command of
Napoleon III, and a church built on the rock
above became a shrine. At the age of 20
Bernadette became a nun at Nevers, and nursed
the wounded of the Franco-Prussian War.