Thursday 16 April is the solemnity of our patroness, St Bernadette Soubirous. There will be a sung Mass on Thursday at 17:30, followed by refreshments in the hall to which all are warmly invited. There will also be Masses at 06:30, 08:30 and an Extraordinary Form (Latin) Mass at 13:10 on Thursday. On the Solemnity of St Bernadette, it is possible to obtain a plenary indulgence, by making a visit to our church and there reciting the Our Father and the Apostles Creed. This is subject to the usual conditions (Confession, Communion, Prayer for the Intentions of the Pope). (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum No. 33.5).
In preparation for the Solemnity we reproduce (slightly adapted) an account of the death of St Bernadette from the biography of our saint by Henri Lasserre (1882). St Bernadette (known as Sister Marie-Bernard in the religious order which she had joined, the Sisters of Charity of Nevers) died on 16th April 1879, the day now observed as her feast, which that year was the Wednesday after Easter day (Wednesday of the Easter Octave).
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… about the hour of the noontide Angelus, when her companions, thinking that they saw concerning signs upon her features, were about to begin the last prayers, “Lord, assist me in my last agony,” Bernadette said gently: “This is not quite the last agony, my dear sisters. You are making me say these prayers too soon; the moment is not yet come.”
“But we are saying them now, lest when the moment is come, you may be no longer able either to say or to hear them.” Bernadette replied: “Then it is well.”
And she followed the prayers with the deepest attention, and with a concentrated recollectedness which had about it something superhuman. … Her hands clasped the crucifix with ineffable tenderness and absolute confidence, while also her look—of which nothing can depict the brightness and love, that luminous gaze, ardent and yet inexpressibly sweet—was immovably fixed on the crucifix hanging on the wall. It was the sublime spectacle of temporal death embracing eternal life.
With regard to this remarkable look, which struck all present with a religious respect, one of the witnesses of this scene, the Abbé Febvre, made the following suggestive observation: “That which has been touched by the supernatural keeps its impress. Now the supernatural touched Bernadette in the sense of vision [when she saw Mary at Lourdes], it touched her eyes, and ever since that moment her incomparable look has preserved a special reflection of it, remarked by all who have even once seen her. But in the latter part of her sickness this reflection has become increasingly vivid, attracting more and more the attention of those around her. It is especially noticeable when she prays, when she is conversing of God, of Jesus and Mary, when she is contemplating the image of Christ, and when any one speaks to her of the joys of heaven. It seems as if her eyes continue to gain fresh splendour in proportion as our Sister Marie-Bernard feels the veil of the flesh being taken away, which hides from her the sight of God.” […]
Between eleven o’clock and noon she asked to sit up, and was placed in an easy chair. She then perceived the time by the ringing of the bell, and in the spirit of consideration for others, and forgetfulness of self, which was one of her virtues and graces, she apologized to those of her companions who remained with her for thus making them late for the mid-day meal.
About one o’clock the chaplain was again summoned. She wished once more to receive absolution; once more were said the prayers for the dying, which she followed with the same fervour and attention. She had afterwards a long interval of calm. A little before three she expressed a desire that the numerous sisters who were in her room should go down as usual to the chapel, to say there the Litany of the Blessed Sacrament. The two infirmary sisters remained.
Almost immediately after, she appeared to be seized by intolerable sufferings, and being doubtless aware that the last thread of life was about to break, she wished to unite herself by indissoluble love to the divine agony of Him who died for us all. With her failing hand she took the crucifix which lay upon her heart, and raising it to her lips, kissed twice over, tenderly and slowly, the five most sacred wounds of our Saviour Jesus.
At this moment, Mother Marie-Nathalie … who was in the chapel, felt herself inwardly pressed to hasten back to Bernadette. On seeing her enter, the dying sister stretched out her arms to her, and always fearing to have failed in her duty during her thirteen years in religious life, she again said to her superior: “Pardon and pray for me.”
Mother Marie-Nathalie and the two infirmarians prostrated themselves in prayer, while Bernadette in a low voice joined in their invocations. She had united herself to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. At three o’clock there passed over her face an indescribable expression of desolation and utter abandonment: “Eli! Eli! Lama Sabachthani!” Looking up to heaven, and opening her arms like a cross, she uttered a great cry: “My God!” An involuntary thrill of reverence and awe, the thought of the last cry of the Crucified God, passed through the religious, who while on their knees praying, at the same time supported the outstretched arms of their dying sister who lay as on the cross.
“Stabat Mater.” The Mother of Sorrows, present on Golgotha, was present also, although invisibly, at the agony of this child whom she loved, and to whom she had promised happiness, not in this world, but in the world to come. And Bernadette spoke to her. In a clear voice she repeated with emphasis: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner.”
The memory and responsibility of the graces received had constantly alarmed her during all her life. She was humble to the last.
Feeling that life was fast ebbing away, and believing that her own efforts, prayers, and love were not sufficiently availing, she turned a supplicating look upon Sister Nathalie, and feebly murmured: “Help me.” The kneeling Mère assistante gave her the aid she asked—a fervent invocation to the Mother of God.
All was not yet over. With an expressive gesture, for her breath was so far gone that her voice could no longer be heard, she said: “I am athirst.” Before touching the offered cup, she summoned all her remaining strength, and made a large sign of the cross, that solemn sign of the cross which, twenty years before, the most holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary had made before her the first time that she appeared to her at the grotto of Lourdes.
She drank a few drops; they wiped her lips; and then, bending her head, she breathed forth her soul to God.
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To read more about our patroness, click here.
