นักบุญแบร์นาแด๊ต
พรหมจารี |
ค.ศ.1844-1879 (ฉลอง 18 กุมภาพันธ์) |
แบร์นาแด๊ต เกิดในประเทศฝรั่งเศสใกล้เคียงลูร์ด
ครอบครัวของเธอยากจนมาก วันหนึ่งในปี ค.ศ. 1858 ขณะที่แบร์นาแด๊ตไปเก็บฟืนในป่า
มีสตรีสวยงามผู้หนึ่งประจักษ์มาหาเธอที่ถ้ำมาสซาเบียลในเทือกเขาพีเรนีส สตรีผู้นั้นแต่งกายด้วยเสื้อผ้าสีฟ้าและสีขาว
และที่เท้าของสตรีมีดอกกุหลาบประดับอยู่ สตรีผู้นั้นยิ้มให้กับเธอ และขอร้องให้เธอสวดสายประคำพร้อมกับท่าน
แบร์นาแด๊ต ได้ไปพบสตรีผู้นั้นถึง
18 ครั้ง แต่ละครั้งมหาชนติดตามเธอไปที่ถ้ำแห่งนั้น เพื่อร่วมสวดสายประคำกับสตรีผู้นั้นพร้อมกับแบร์นาแด๊ต
ครั้งหนึ่งสตรีผู้นั้นบอกให้แบร์นาแด๊ตขุดลงบนพื้นดินที่ตนคุกเข่า ทันใดนั้นเกิดบ่อน้ำพุมหัศจรรย์ประชาชนใช้น้ำนั้นรักษาโรคต่างๆ
ของตน อาศัยความศรัทธา แบร์นาแด๊ตถามสตรีผู้นั้นว่า "ท่านคือใคร" สตรีผู้นั้นตอบว่า "เราคือผู้ปฏิสนธินิรมล" ซึ่งหมายถึง "แม่พระ" นั่นเอง แม่พระวิงวอนทุกคนให้สวดภาวนามากๆ
เพื่อคนบาป
แบร์นาแด๊ตได้บวชเป็นซิสเตอร์ในเวลาต่อมา
และถึงแก่กรรมเมื่ออายุ 36 ปี แต่อัศจรรย์ที่ลูร์ดมีอยู่เสมอตราบเท่าทุกวันนี้
BERNADETTE of Lourdes
Also known as
Maria Bernadette; Marie Bernarde; Sleeping Saint of Nevers; Bernardette; Bernardetta;
Bernada; Bernardette Soubirous
Memorial
16 April; 18 February in France
Profile
Oldest of 6 children in a very poor family headed by Francois
and Louise Casterot. Hired out as a servant from age 12 to 14. Shepherdess.
On 11 February 1858, around the time of her first Communion, she received
a vision of the Virgin; her own account of it is in the Reading section further
in this document. She received 18 more in the next 5 months, and was led to
a spring of healing waters. She moved into a house with the sisters of Nevers
at Lourdes where she lived, worked, and learned to read and write. The sisters
cared to the sick and indigent, and at age 22 they admitted Bernadette into
their order since she was both. Always sick, and often mistreated by her superiors,
she died with a prayer for Mary's aid. Body is incorruptible.
> Since the appearances of Mary to young Bernadette in 1858, more than
200 million people have visited the shrine of Lourdes.
Born
7 January 1844 at Lourdes, France
Died
16 April 1879, Nevers, France
Canonized
1933 by Pope Pius XI
Name Meaning
brave as a bear
Patronage
bodily ills, illness, Lourdes France, people ridiculed for their piety, poverty,
shepherdesses, shepherds, sick people, sickness
Readings
Nothing is anything more to me; everything is nothing to me, but Jesus: neither
things nor persons, neither ideas nor emotions, neither honor nor sufferings.
Jesus is for me honor, delight, heart and soul.
Saint Bernadette
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You must receive God well; give Him a loving welcome, for then He has to pay
us rent.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous
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The more I am crucified, the more I rejoice.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous
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I had gone down one day with two other girls to the bank of the river Gave
when suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the
field by the side of the river, but the trees seemed quite still and the noise
was evidently not from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave
where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top
of each of her feet was a pale yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads.
At this I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was seeing things, and I put my hands
into the fold of my dress where my rosary was. I wanted to make the sign of
the cross, but for the life of me I couldn't manage it, and my hand just fell
down. Then the lady made the sign of the cross herself, and at the second
attempt I managed to do the same, though my hands were trembling. Then I began
to say the rosary while the lady let her beads clip through her fingers, without
moving her lips. When I stopped saying the Hail Mary, she immediately vanished.
I asked my two companions if they had noticed anything, but they said no.
Of course, they wanted to know what I was doing, and I told them that I had
seen a lady wearing a nice white dress, though I didn't know who she was.
I told them not to say anything about it, and they said I was silly to have
anything to do with it. I said they were wrong, and I came back next Sunday,
feeling myself drawn to the place....
The third time I went, the lady spoke to me and asked me to come every day
for fifteen days. I said I would and then she said that she wanted me to tell
the priests to build a chapel there. She also told me to drink from the stream.
I went to the Gave, the only stream I could see. Then she made me realize
she was not speaking of the Gave, and she indicated a little trickle of water
close by. When I got to it I could only find a few drops, mostly mud. I cupped
my hands to catch some liquid without success, and then I started to scrape
the ground. I managed to find a few drops of water, but only at the fourth
attempt was there sufficient for any kind of a drink. The lady then vanished
and I went back home.
I went back each day for fifteen days, and each time, except one Monday and
one Friday, the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in
it and to see that the priests build a chapel there. I must also pray, she
said, for the conversion of sinners. I asked her many times what she meant
by that, but she only smiled. Finally, with outstretched arms and eyes looking
up to heaven, she told me she was the Immaculate Conception.
During the fifteen days she told me three secrets, but I was not to speak
about them to anyone, and so far I have not.
from a letter by Saint Bernadette