While reading through a translation of Saint Bernadette Soubirous by Abbe Francis Trochu, who also wrote the excellent The Cure d’Ars, I’ve been quite affected by this visionary behind the Marian apparitions at Lourdes in 1858. H. H. Pius XII, by the way, speaks of her in his encyclical letter of 1957. However, my favorite parts of the book are quotes of things written by local French unbelievers. From two newspaper articles at the end of the famed fortnight of apparitions:

The day so longed for, so impatiently awaited, arrived at last. Four to five thousand people were assembled on the hillocks adjoining the grotto as well as on the right bank of the Gave, awaiting the finale that had been advertised: the Apparition of the Virgin - in short, a miracle.

What a deception! What a humiliation for the poor incredulous dupes!…The crowd dispersed in silence and deep dissatisfaction. How many then realized, but alas too late, the absurdity of their conduct, and deplored their excessive credulity! Our readers should be convinced to-day….

….

The child is simply a cataleptic….We should not be in this predicament if the parents of the alleged saint had followed the advice of the doctors who invited them to send the sick child to the hospital.

In marked opposition is the account of Count de Bruissard:

I was at Cauterets at the time when there was so much talk of the Lourdes Apparitions. I no more believed in them than in the existence of God: I was a lost sheep and, what is worse, an atheist. Having seen in the local paper that Bernadette had had an apparition on July 16th, and that the Virgin smiled upon her, I resolved out of curiousity to go to Lourdes and catch the little one in her red-handed lies.

I went to the Soubirous’ home and found Bernadette on the doorstep busy darning stockings. After long questioning about the Apparitions I said to her: ‘Lastly, how did she smile, this beautiful Lady’ The little sheperdess stared at me with wonder; then after a moment’s silence: ‘Oh, sir, you would have to come from Heaven itself to reproduce that smile.’

‘Could you not repeat it for me? I am an unbeliever and I don’t believe in your Apparitions.’

The child’s face clouded over. ‘Then, sir, you think I am a liar?’

I felt disarmed. No, Bernadette was no liar, and I was on the point of going down on my knees to beg her pardon. Then she went on: ‘As you are a sinner, I shall repeat the Blessed Virgin’s smile for you.’ The child got up very slowly, joined her hands and gave a heavenly smile such as I have never seen on any mortal lips. Her face lit up with a dazzling radiance of light. She smiled again with her eyes raised heavenwards. I remained motionless before her, convinced that I had seen the Virgin’s smile on the face of the visionary.

Since then I have treasured this heavenly memory in the depths of my soul. I have lost my wife and my two daughters. Yet it seems to me that I am not alone in the world. I live with the Virgin’s smile.

Sainte Bernadette, priez pour nous
Notre Dame de Lourdes, priez pour nous

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