Born in Lourdes in 1844, Bernadette Soubirous was 14 when the Virgin Mary appeared to her at Massabielle Rock. In 1866, in order to fulfill her desire for a religious life, Bernadette arrived in Saint-Gildard, Mother House of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she had learned to read and write.
Bernadette stayed there for 13 years. Her simple and ordinary life was completely given to God and others. On her death in 1879, her body was entombed in a chapel in the garden. It was found intact and has rested in a shrine in the chapel since 1925.
Since the Blessed Virgin Mary graced the grotto of Lourdes with Her presence in 1858, it has been one of the world’s most popular Marian shrines. Many people have knelt at the famous rock and prayed to Saint Bernadette, who saw the Immaculate Virgin on 18 occasions. And yet many people do not know that the body of Saint Bernadette lies incorrupt in the chapel of the Convent of Saint-Gildard at Nevers, and that this convent is open to the public. Many pilgrims visit the convent, others come out of curiosity, perhaps disbelieving that Bernadette's body is indeed perfectly preserved. The air of reverence and silence follows closely on the realization that this is fact rather than fantasy.
When Bernadette died on April 16, 1879, her body was buried in the small chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, within the convent grounds. In September of 1909, Bernadette’s body was exhumed as part of the process leading to her eventual canonization. The hollowed-out tomb was extremely humid - her habit was very damp, the rosary held in her hands was rusted and her crucifix had turned green. Yet despite this, the body itself was perfectly preserved. Two further exhumations (in April 1919 and April 1925) were carried out. At the third, the skin was found to have discoloured slightly in places, due probably to exposure to the air following the 46 years of burial. Because of this, the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris made light wax coverings for the face and hands. By June of 1925, the Cateland workshop in Lyon had finished the gilt and crystal reliquary which was to be the final resting place of the saint; the light wax masks were placed on the face and hands and the body was placed in the shrine. The same month, Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette - she could now be called "Blessed" and her remains could be publicly venerated. In August, the shrine was ceremonially placed in the main chapel of the convent, and the long line of pilgrims began to visit the convent. In 1933, Bernadette was declared a Saint - appropriately, this took place on December 8th, feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Anyhow, we did a tour of the convent. The warm, dry weather of 28 degrees (C) made long walks in the grounds very pleasant. It’s very easy to imagine Bernadette herself walking there, especially as there have been few changes since that time. Behind the convent, at the end of an avenue of chestnut trees, is the tiny chapel dedicated to St. Joseph.
This was one of Bernadette’s favorite places for quiet prayer, as she had a fond love for the Spouse of Mary. It was later to become her resting place during the 46 years of her burial. It is very plain and simple, with a stained-glass window of Our Lady above the small altar. Inset into the wall is the tombstone from Bernadette’s original grave.
We had a leisurely visit at the convent. After the tour, we stayed put on the grounds of the convent to wait for the 2pm mass. We passed the time by having some photo ops and eating our “packed” lunch.
After mass and after fulfilling my traditional 3 wishes, we all then scrambled back onto our bus and proceeded to the beautiful city of Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy. It is a walled city, where about half of the battlements, ramparts and the moat, remain in good condition. Historically, Beaune is intimately connected with the Dukes of Burgundy.
Thereafter, we checked in into our hotel, Ibis Beaune La Ferme Aux Vins, for the night.
After breakfast the following day, we visited “Hotel-Dieu”, one of the most impressive architectural pieces in the region. Built in 1443 by Nicolas Rollin, chancellor to King Philippe le Bon (Philip the Good), its unique style was inspired by Flemish architecture. A former medieval hospital, its purpose was to serve and take care of the pauper who had fought for the French armies.
As a backgrounder, The Hotel-Dieu was founded when Burgundy was ruled by Philip the Good. The Hundred Years War had recently been brought to a close. However, massacres continued with marauding bands still roaming the countryside, provoking misery and famine. The majority of the people of Beaune were declared destitute. Nicolas Rollin, the Duke’s Chancellor, and his wife reacted by deciding to create a hospital and refuge for the poor.
Over the centuries, the hospital radiated outwards, grouping with similar establishments in the surrounding villages. Many donations were made to it by grateful families and generous benefactors. The institution is one of the best and oldest examples of historical, philanthropic, and wine-producing heritage, and has become linked with the economic and cultural life of Burgundy. It is now a museum.
Below is the “Room of the Poors”. On the ceiling is a visible painted frame in an upside down boat-skiff shape and in each beam are sculpted caricatures of some important Beaune inhabitants. The room is furnished with two rows of curtained beds. The central area was dedicated to benches and tables for the meals. Each bed could welcome two patients.
Close-up view:
If there was a room for the poor people, there was also a room for the rich people. Noticed the difference?
After a tour of the museum, we had some time to take some photos of the beautiful city:
Thereafter, we proceeded to, and had Benediction at, the Convent where the Infant Jesus appeared to Venerable Margaret of the Most Blessed Sacrament and gave her the Chaplet prayer to remember the 12 years of His childhood.
As a backgrounder, Margaret at age 5 received her first vision of the Child Jesus. At age 11, she made her First Communion, and then later the same day joined the Carmelites. The girl was soon afflicted with convulsions, rigidity in the limbs, and a constant feeling of fear and oppression. Doctors performed a useless operation that left her with lifelong head pain. Margaret and the mother superior of the house decided the girl was under demonic attack, and she was cured by prayer. Soon after, Margaret began to have visions and to fall into ecstasies during prayer. She began to relive the mysteries of the life of Our Lord as each came up in the liturgical calendar. Following a request by Christ in a vision, she helped build a chapel in the nearby monastery of Saint Etienne. She died at age 29, having lived her life in devotion to the Child Jesus and Holy Family.
Thereafter, we proceeded to Ars, a small city northwest of Lyon, to visit the shrine of St. John Vianney.
As a backgrounder, St. Jean-Marie (John) Vianney was the parish priest (curé) of Ars. During his lifetime, St. John Vianney founded an orphanage for girls and became internationally famous for his spiritual direction. He was known for his powerful sermons, personal example of holiness and his ability to perform miracles. He was said to be able to read souls in the confessional and predict future events.
Throughout France there was a saying, "There is a holy man in Ars; go and see him." And people did - between 1830 and 1845, an average of 300 people visited Ars every day to meet with St. John Vianney. He slept only two hours a night so he could serve all the pilgrims, and spent up to 17 hours a day hearing confessions. The Curé of Ars also ate little, dressed in old clothes and slept on a hard bed. He was said to have been attacked by the Devil regularly, including one famous incident in which the Devil set the saint's bed on fire.
The Sanctuary of St. John Vianney contains several sites of interest to pilgrims and tourists alike. It has two churches: the old 12th-century church where St. John Vianney preached, and a new basilica that displays his preserved body in a glass case. The saint's heart is enshrined in a smaller separate building, the Shrine of the Cure's Heart.
Pilgrims can also visit the home of the Curé of Ars, which was preserved the way he left it. It contains the very bed set on fire by the devil as well as the saint's rosary, breviary, library and other personal items. Other sights include the Underground Church designed for large groups of pilgrims, a film on the life and work of the saint, a wax museum, and the orphanage founded by the Curé, called La Providence. St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, died on August 4, 1859. In 1874, Pope Pius IX declared him Venerable, and he was canonized a Saint by Pope Pius XI in 1925.
Anyhow, after fulfilling my 3 wishes and photo ops, we proceeded to Paray-le-Monial, mainly known for its Romanesque church, the Basilica du Sacré-Coeur, and is home to the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The basilica is a fine, well-proportioned building, with the different parts of the building 'stacked' against the octagonal central tower, and having windows at various levels allowing light to illuminate the interior. The basilica sits on the river’s edge and is a beautiful building in a lovely setting.
When one goes on a pilgrimage, a certain web of grace connects people and places in surprising and unexpected, if not mysterious, ways. For me, one of the great surprises of our pilgrimage was in Paray-le-Monial. I knew that the moment I stepped off the bus, my experience in Paray-le-Monial will be different from the rest. And I was right. So allow me to delve deeply into this portion of my pilgrimage experience.
The most venerated spot in Paray-le-Monial is the Chapel of the Visitation, where most of the apparitions to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Roman Catholic nun and mystic, who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, took place.
As a backgrounder, Margaret, from early childhood, was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament (the Eucharist), and who had preferred silence and prayer to childhood play. After her First Communion at the age of 9, she practiced in secret severe corporal mortification, including carving the name "Jesus" into her chest as an adolescent until rheumatic fever confined her to bed for 4 years. At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health.
She had visions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience and continued to practice austerity. However, in response to a vision of Christ, crucified but alive, that reproached her for forgetfulness of him, claiming his Heart was filled with love for her due to her promise, she entered the convent at age 24 intending to become a nun. It was then that she changed her baptismal name of Marguerite (Margaret) to her religious name of Marguerite-Marie (Margaret Mary).
In this convent, she received several revelations of the Sacred Heart. The visions revealed to her the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the First Friday Devotions of each month, the Eucharistic adoration during the Holy Hour on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. She stated that in her vision, she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on the sufferings of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Holy Hour practice later became widespread among Catholics.
Anyhow, we waited outside the church for an ongoing mass to be finished, after which we entered the Chapel of the Visitation where Fr. Jerry celebrated Mass. As I knelt at the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer, my eyes were riveted to the area above the Altar of Sacrifice where there is a powerful mural depicting that moment when the Heart of Jesus united itself forever with St. Margaret Mary’s heart and that of St. Claude Colombiere, the community's confessor at that time, His two faithful servants.
My eyes then traveled to the right side of the main Altar where there is a grille. It was there, behind that very grille, that Margaret Mary heard Mass and received Holy Communion. It was there where she went into ecstasy, where Our Lord Jesus, present in the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the Altar, gave her the message of Love she was to spread to the whole world. It was there that He showed her His wounded Heart and asked her to establish a Feast in honor of His Sacred Heart.
Personally, it was at that moment that I felt some stirrings in my soul where I felt I was “closest” to God, an experience that I don’t think will ever be recaptured again in my lifetime. Could it be because I was not distracted by taking pictures here and there that I was able to just focus on our Lord? My answer is a simple “I really don’t know”. As far as I was concerned, my spirituality was never the same after that.
After the mass and my traditional 3 wishes (no photos allowed), we then left for our hotel, Hostellerie Des Trois Pigeons, a very nice and old but elegant hotel. Grace (whose luggage was still missing-in-action) and I chatted until the wee hours of the morning since I couldn’t sleep. I felt “high”, probably from my unforgettable spiritual experience. It goes without saying that we slept in the following morning and missed breakfast. Had it not been for my dear sister who woke us up, we could have been left behind. Could it be that the Lord wanted me to stay in Paray-le-Monial?
Well, your guess is as good as mine.
To Be Continued....
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