(The images on this page and the quotations are from Catholic Pilgrims.com)

Saint Bernadette.

In the south of France, close to the Pyrenees Mountains, there is a little town called Lourdes. Millions of Christian pilgrims from all over the world visit this place every year.  
Inside a cave (the Grotto of Massabielle) beside the town, there is a very special spring of water, discovered in 1858 by a fourteen-year-old girl called Marie-Bernarde Soubirous.  

On the 11th February of that year, whilst collecting firewood, the young girl experienced a vision .  She saw a beautiful lady dressed in a white veil, a blue girdle and a golden rose on each foot.  This lady hovered in the air at the entrance of the grotto. She told the girl to return each day for the next fortnight.  Marie-Bernarde did as she was told and each day the same lady spoke to her in a series of eighteen visions. (Below, Marie-Bernarde is at the entrance of the grotto- photo taken in 1862.)

On the 25th February (the ninth vision), the  'small, beautiful lady' (believed to be Mary, the Mother of Jesus) told Marie-Bernarde to drink from the water of the grotto.  This was a confusing command because there was no water in the grotto of Massabielle.  The lady explained that the water would appear by digging and scraping in a certain place inside the cave.  So, Marie-Bernarde dug and nothing happened.  However, the next day a spring of water appeared from the area where the digging had taken place. 

This is what Marie-Bernarde said about the discovery of the spring - 

 "The Lady told me that I should go and drink at the fountain and wash myself. Seeing no fountain I went to drink at the River Gave. She said it was not there; she pointed with her finger that I was to go in under the rock. I went, and I found a puddle of water which was more like mud, and the quantity was so small that I could hardly gather any in the hollow of my hand. Nevertheless I obeyed, and started scratching the ground; after doing that I was able to take some. The water was so dirty that three times I threw it away. The fourth time I was able to drink it. She made me eat grass growing in the same place where I had drunk; once only; I do not know why. Then the Vision disappeared and I went home." 

The next day, the fountain of clean water flowed!

It is believed that the water is very special and that it has 'healing powers.'  It is said that many sick people have been cured by touching or drinking the water.  Every day, sick people visit this place in the hope that the water will cure them.  It is estimated that around 200 million people have visited this little town since 1860!  Second to Paris, it is the most visited French town.
When you visit Lourdes, you can obtain bottles of the precious water to take home. 
The young girl who discovered the spring was made a saint in 1933 and is now called Saint Bernadette.  Below there is a photo of her.

Saint Bernadette's childhood - She was born in 1844 and was the oldest of nine children.  Three of her brothers and sisters died in infancy.  The family lived in extreme poverty in one tiny room within a mill (picture below.) 

 Bernadette was weak and suffered from asthma and she did not learn how to read or write until she was an adult.  Her parents were called François and Louise (picture below). 

In 1856, the family struggled to pay the rent and they were homeless.  A relative allowed them to live in an old prison cell he owned.  This was called 'Le Cachot' (photo below.)

The owner of 'Le Cachot' was André Sajous.  This is how he described the family's living conditions -

 "The room was dark ... In the backyard was the toilet which overflowed and made the place smell terrible. We kept the dung-heap there ... The Soubirous were destitute: two poor beds, one on the right as you entered, and the other on the same side nearer to the fireplace ... They had only a little trunk to put all their linen in ... My wife lent them some nightshirts: they were full of vermin ... She often gave them a bit of bread made of millet. Yet the little ones never asked for anything. They would rather have starved."

In 1879, Marie-Bernarde died in the convent of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers where she had lived and worked as a nurse and a nun since the age of twenty-two.  When she died, she was only thirty-five years old.  Today, Saint Bernadette can be seen lying, as if asleep, in her gold and crystal tomb in the chapel of Saint Gildard at the convent.  In fact, she is sometimes referred to as 'The Sleeping Saint of Nevers.'